A/N: Okay, so this story was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but more than one person requested that I add more chapters… so yeah. Aggh, I've got so many stories that I'm currently writing! Once I finish them all, I'm going to take a break from multi-chaps…
Enjoy!
Revival
Everything happened so fast, Juno barely had enough time to even process what was going on. She remembered the long ride to Kamino on that bounty hunter's ship (though only vaguely; the nerf herder had kept her drugged for the most part, making her memories foggy at best). Then there was the stormtroopers, dragging her (none too gently) across the facility. She had been injured, but no one allowed her to receive treatment – not that she was surprised; they were Vader's men, after all. Most of the trip was a haze of pain, exhaustion and moisture, with some flashes of the surrounding seascape and the muted crash of thunder echoing in her leaden head. She didn't entirely understand what they wanted her for.
Then he came.
First were the sounds of a lightsaber battle occurring below where she was standing, accompanied by screams, shouts, curses… all in one familiar voice. Juno was certain that she was hallucinating – he was dead; she had seen the explosion. Nobody could have survived it, not even him. The sounds paused for a moment, followed by the sound of an approaching ship. Next thing she knew, Vader had leaped down and landed in front of her, turning a warning look her way. It really wasn't necessary – she knew that in her condition, she'd barely last a second if she tried to escape.
Then, footsteps rapidly approaching; no, not just approaching – sprinting. A pale blue glow was cast around the area in front of her. Juno could hear the sound of a man's heavy breathing… and there was no mistake this time. His scream nearly burst her ear drums from its volume and intensity. "WHERE IS SHE?!"
Vader stepped aside. Juno barely dared to raise her head, and when she did… her heart stopped. Hearing his voice was one thing, but seeing his face, right there, not fifteen feet from her… it was something else entirely. The anger, the pain, the fear and the exhaustion on his face could never have been mimicked, not in the most vivid hallucination. How he was here… how he had managed to survive… she didn't know. But at that moment, it hardly mattered. Her capture didn't matter. Kamino didn't matter. Even Vader himself didn't matter… not in comparison to seeing Galen standing before her, intact, only mildly injured and so blissfully alive…
The expression on his face changed, his anger dissipating and his fear skyrocketing, mixing in with a dose of relief. "Juno…" His voice was soft, gentle, as he reached out for her.
Then Juno's air supply was abruptly cut off as she was hoisted into the air by the Force. Vader's hand was halfway clenched, as if he were choking someone… which, actually, he sort of was… Juno struggled and gagged… she couldn't breathe… just one breath… please… "Bow before me, or she dies," Vader commanded Galen.
He stiffened at the command. His eyes focused on her, wide with shock, terror. She felt Vader's grip on her throat tighten, and she involuntarily clutched at it, fruitlessly trying to pry those invisible hands off. "Wait, WAIT!" Galen shrieked, holding up one hand in desperation. His eyes fell on her face. No, Juno mouthed, shaking her head vigorously.
Through the fog of unconsciousness threatening to envelop her, Juno watched in horror as Galen's lighsabers deactivated and fell with a clunk on the metallic ground, and he fell to his knees. "I… will do your bidding," he choked out, as if the words were acid on his tongue. "Just let her go…" he whispered. He sounded as if he was near tears. Galen bowed his head and closed his eyes.
No! she wanted to scream. Don't! It's not worth it! But of course, she was incapable of saying anything. She was only an observer now.
In an instant, the force on her throat was released. Falling ungracefully to the ground, Juno gasped and sucked in a lungful of salty air. Somehow, though, knowing that it was only Galen's submission to Vader that was permitting her to breathe again, kept her from enjoying the sensation. Galen… don't do this. Please…
"You will kill General Kota," Vader ordered. Galen flinched noticeably, his hands beginning to shake. "If you refuse, the woman dies." Juno pushed herself up from her sprawled position to look intently at Galen. If she didn't put a stop to this… he'd regret it forever, hate himself forever. She knew him well enough to be dead certain of that. Her eyes fell on one of his fallen lightsabers, which had rolled to a mere five feet from where she lay. Silently, as not to draw attention to herself, she crept forward, reaching out to grab it the moment that it was within her grasp.
"You will return to me and give yourself to the dark side," Vader continued. Glancing up, Juno saw Galen shudder, but remain in his kneeling position. The lightsaber was only a foot away now. "If you resist, she dies." He paused, permitting the order to sink in. Then he continued. "And when your training is complete, you will hunt down and execute the rebel leaders." Juno's hand seized the weapon's hilt. "If you fail, she dies."
With a hiss, Juno ignited the saber and flew to her feet, pointing it threateningly at Vader. He turned to her, obviously taken off guard, and stared at the glowing blade. She took a step forward, the weapon mere inches from his chest. For a moment, she thought it might actually work. But then the same force that had hoisted her up by her neck only minutes before slammed against her side, jarring the lightsaber from her grip and sending her plummeting off the side of the platform towards the sea below.
Wind whipped past her face, roaring mercilessly in her ears and stinging her eyes and cheeks. The rain mixed in with it didn't do anything to soothe the pain. Looking down, she saw the ground of a lower platform coming closer and closer, and she only had time to process one thought; I failed…
With a sickening crack, Juno's body slammed against the metal floor. It didn't hurt, so she figured she must have broken her neck or her back or something to that effect. But she thought this only vaguely; sensation was rapidly vanishing from her entire body – there went the cold, there the pressure… and she didn't feel any aches or pains at all. Her mind was rapidly fogging. Red tinged her vision – blood, she supposed it must have been. The smells of the sea vanished; the light touch of the wind and the rain disappeared; and her vision faded to black.
The last thing she heard was Galen's furious, anguished scream echoing from far above. If my death drives him away from Vader for good, she thought, then it will have been worth it. With that last thought lingering in her brain, she stopped fighting back and allowed the darkness to swallow her.
XXX
XXX
She was floating aimlessly in the darkness of space, stars and nebulas, planets and moons gliding past her. Streams of color flowed beside her, like glowing rivers of neon light, pulling her along with their current. She had no control of her body – or did she even have one to begin with? – all she could do was go with the flow of the supernatural tide; drawing in and out like the seas of Kamino. She saw everything… and nothing… felt both frozen and ignited… both awake and asleep. Nothing was clear-cut; everything around her was in motion, flexing, squeezing, swerving to both the right and the left and taking her with it. Juno Eclipse, a former pilot who had always been in control, found this unnerving.
Wisps of fog curled around her face, drawing out little pieces of her memory as they did so. Her mother's face… vanished… her father's cruelty… gone… her days in the Academy, then as a pilot, even the bombing of Callos were whisked away as if they never had been. She did not fight back; in fact, the removal of these painful, shameful memories brought a type of peace within the tattered remnants of her soul. Her days in the Alliance began to drift away, next. These, she attempted to cling to, but even they could not be held in. Kota's face became foggy, his voice distant – Juno no longer remembered what Princess Leia's laugh sounded like – no longer could she recall the name of her ship, or her crew, or Bail Organa or anything else about that.
Galen's face came to the front of her mind – but even that started to fade. NO! Juno fought back the fog as hard as she could, lashing out against the amnesia and the confusion. Those other memories were nothing – NOTHING – compared to him. Stop it! I won't forget… I can't forget… I NEED to remember him! What else could she do? What point was left for her in this place, except to remember the very person she had died trying to save? Juno closed her eyes tightly. I remember… I remember… I will never STOP remembering…
Like an answer to a prayer, the fog retreated from her, and the memories flooded into her mind in a tsunami of mixed recollections, emotions, and countless other unnamable elements. Juno breathed out a sigh of relief, clinging to the memories with all the strength that that tiny remnant of her soul had inside of it.
The world around her changed, turning from pitch black to pure white. Then, from a distance, as if in a dream, she saw him – not in a memory, as before, but really, actually saw him. He was standing before a kneeling Vader, he twin blue lightsabers held up in a threatening pose. His eyes were burning with hatred and fury. "YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!" he screeched, his hands shaking with impending wrath as he glared down at the man who had subjugated him to so many trials over the course of his life. Vader's mask always covered his face, but considering the fact that the rest of his armor was in tatters, burned away wherever Galen's blade had touched it, Juno knew that had it been visible, it probably would have been burned, bruised, and drenched in sweat.
"Your feelings for her are not real," Vader insisted, making Juno clench her imaginary hands and Galen flare up with his fury.
"THEY ARE REAL TO ME!" he roared, bringing his lightsabers down to deal the killing blow.
"Wait!" Kota's voice caused Galen to pause, glancing behind him as the general ran up to his side.
"You want him dead as much as I do," he snarled, the anger in his expression not lessening in the slightest. Kota grabbed his friend's arm.
"Yes, but not yet!" he growled, his face stony as he shouted. "Not until he's told us the Empire's secrets!" Turning the boy halfway around, he looked him straight in the eye, trying to emphasize his point. Galen's eyes narrowed.
"You want to take him prisoner?" he asked, looking disgusted. From her bird's-eye-view, Juno wondered just how much more Galen could take before he flat-out refused to listen to Kota anymore. The crazed expression he wore proved, at least to her, that he had had enough hell over the past few weeks to last him for a lifetime.
Kota's voice took on a somewhat desperate edge as he attempted to explain it to him. "To a hidden Rebel base where we can interrogate him, put him on trial for crimes against the true Republic."As he turned to look at Vader's defeated form, Juno could see almost as much hatred and revulsion on his face as she saw on Galen's. Almost. "And then we'll execute him, to show the galaxy that we don't need to fear him any longer!" Juno flinched at the bite she heard in Kota's voice, though she agreed with every statement he had made.
Galen faltered slightly, his eyes losing some of their fire and his muscles some of their tenseness. "If I let him live…" he said quietly, "…he'll haunt me forever." Kota grabbed his shoulder and spoke gratingly into his ear.
"He's the only one who knows if Starkiller really survived." Wait… Juno thought. What does THAT mean? She shrugged it off as Kota continued, "He can't tell you if he's dead!"
Galen hesitated a moment, staring down at Vader silently. Juno saw the conflict play across his face as easily as if he were an open book. That didn't happen often with him. Galen half-raised his lightsabers again…
His hands fell to his sides as he deactivated them with a click. Shaking his head, he turned away from his former Master.
And the whole world went black once more.
XXX
XXX
All sound was muted as the fog began to swirl around her again. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Juno heard the soft patter of rain, the crack of thunder and the rushing of a harsh wind. Then she heard a metallic voice… a droid's voice… speaking, though she didn't know what it said. Suddenly, she was surrounded with warmth, feeling strong arms encircle her and pull her to a warm chest. A cool forehead pressed against hers. Something hot and wet fell on her face. But… shouldn't the rain be cold?
Juno sensed light outside of her eyelids. Opening them slowly, she saw Galen's face suspended above hers, tears mixed with rain streaming down it. His body was shaking with sobs. His expression was of raw, uncontained grief. Gently, she reached up and touched his cheek. He froze, his bloodshot eyes opening slowly to lock with hers. She smiled at him, stroking his face. Before his mind could catch up with his senses, Juno leaned up and planted a gentle kiss on his lips. His arms tightened around her, holding her as if he never planned on letting go, and he willingly returned it.
When she finally pulled away, she wrapped her arms around his next and brought her lips next to his ear. "We're alive," she breathed, half-laughing in relief. She felt him chuckle weakly as well, his stomach quaking just the slightest bit. He leaned down some more, resting his head on her shoulder and pulling her against his chest.
And Juno knew then that everything would be okay.
This didn't turn out exactly as I planned, but oh well. I liked chapter 1 better, but this is still sweet. :) These two are the best.
If anyone has ideas for the next one-shot, you can message me about it. *Note: I refuse to do anything that will raise the rating to an 'M', and this especially refers to sexual content. So don't ask. If you want to see that, you'll have to look at another story, because I don't write that way.
Review!