5: The Front Lines
Willow had attempted sleep, and yet she failed. It could be better described as a temporary standby. Her mind had seemed to hum silently, discarding useless things that were taking up space in her memory like emotions that only served to blind her. Slopiness could not be afforded, not now. Even if she had insisted on burning the candles at both ends, she was now a prisoner of her own mechanical body and mind. Every day, her soul seemed to fade.
"Mornin' sunshine," the fellow prisoner had smirked, an unusual gleam lit upon his face, "Sleep well?"
"Still not dead yet?"
"I'll take that as a yes," he replied with the same happy expression.
Willow just couldn't read him. Was it that he actually expected her to free him? Why would she put herself in danger when escape was as easy as agreeing to track down the Jedi. This prisoner was a fool, and she would only lose more if she helped him.
"Did you think about what I told you," he said after a moment of silence, "about that red button, I mean."
"How could I foget," her sarcasm was thick enough to change his expression.
"I just want to get out of here," he scolded, "Maybe you're afraid you won't be able to pull it off, is that it? Figures..."
"Nice try, but I'm not so easily swayed. Besides, I'm already getting out of here, you're the one that's trapped."
She disliked him more and more as time went on, and his child-like attempts to anger her only reassured her that he would wind up getting her killed. He kept trying to spark her anger, and other emotions, yet his attempts were in vain. She'd already decided that she would hunt the Jedi. Usually she would not get involved, but she had a score to settle with all these saber tossers; perhaps she could get them to kill each other.
xxxxxxx
Elsewhere, aboard Lord Malik's star cruiser, in a built in chamber, the Dark Lord of the Sith meditated. He narrowed his focus to the Jedi, yet no visions came to him. He was beginning to grow impatient and frustrated. The dark side of the force was swelling within him, and yet, he felt no sense of control. He wasn't asking for peace, but even this sensation was unusual for the Sith, or at least Malik thought so.
"Have you enjoyed my gifts," a smooth voice peirced into his mind, "I am that I do. I have had many champions, yet none so great as you. Yet I wonder, are you also hindered by the champions of light? The Jedi, as you call them?"
"How dare you," Malik hissed back in his own mind, instantly becoming infuriated, "I am the-"
"Dark Lord of the Sith," the voice interrupted, "The lord of all three Sith; what an accomplishment. You are a fool with too much power, and no regard for where it comes from."
"Three Sith? We are only two in number," Malik replied.
"The previous Sith Lord yet lives," the voice chimed, "Cloning himself as if to defy my will."
"Your will," Malik growled, "What right have you to command a Sith?"
"I am the Dark Side," the voice replied, "I am the power you Sith crave and seek to acheive your greatness."
"Why do you beckon to me, then?"
"A great convergence is coming between me and my twin brother of light. Only one of us will remain, and only one champion of each side may bring about balance."
"I will fall to no Jedi," Malik snarled, "I will wipe them out for good, and decree that all force sensitive sentients be exterminated. My apprentice will see to that."
"What then, I wonder..."
"Then my descendants will be the only ones left to weild the force. I will bring about the first galactic dynasty, and my offspring shall rule forever."
"I will allow this," the dark side responded finally, "but beware your apprentice, Dark Lord, for she may prove to be your undoing..."
"My apprentice will be my greatest asset when the time comes, I promise..."
xxxxxxx
Hoth was well known for its harsh storms, but the Jedi knew that the quaking through this base did not come from extreme weather anomalies. However, Xenos' unease stemmed from something else, something farther away. A tremor had echoed through the force; no it had been more than a tremor. The sensation could better be described as a feeling of drowning, as if he were incapable of breathing yet had the ability to try.
"Master," Dakriel shouted as Xenos collapsed almost fainting, "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes, padawan," but Xenos had just blacked out, and now it was all he could do to keep himself upright in a sitting position.
The force swelled inside him, visions flashing through his mind. He could see the future, or at least what was to come. Dakriel was dying, painfully so, and Keith was nowhere to be seen. Darth Mira held a child in her arms, yet it did not look human, not even mortal. The infant was a terrifying sight, glowing red eyes surrounded by black eye sockets scarred the rest of its evil face. Then there was Malik, smiling with pride at his abomination, but where was Xenos?
He felt as though he were lying down, at least from what he could tell. The angle of his sight told him he was on his stomach, and although he tried to get up, he couldn't move. The force was gone from him, he could not call on its power to save him. Malik stepped forward, smiling with pure joy, sabers drawn. "Farewell, Jedi," and the crimson light vanquished Xenos.
"NO," Xenos screamed, awakening in his padawan's arms, Keith kneeling next to him concerned, "Oh...It's you..."
"Come in, Jedi, come in," Tarrka's voice echoed over the comm links, "Prepare to fire the weapon, Jedi, the time for victory is at hand."
"Understood general," Dakriel replied, helping Xenos to his feet.
"Is he okay," Keith asked with a worried expression, "He looks like he he just ate Bantha Fodder."
"I'm alright," Xenos replied, shrugging Dakriel off of him, "Just had a bad spill. I'm not used to the cold of this icy world."
Dakriel could sense he was lying, but said nothing. It was not a padawan's place to question his master, but that didn't stop him from being concerned. He had felt the shift in the force as well, but not as much as Xenos had. Keith seemed blind to it, but that was just his inexperience with the force. Between battling the Sith, and outrunning Sith Imperial forces, the two Jedi hadn't had time to begin training him.
Another quake shook the base to its core as the Jedi powered on the vast machines that were all but alien to them. Their design was not unlike that of large engines, with what looked like repurposed bacta tanks. The bacta tanks were filled with a plasma like substance that seemed to glow, and hummed with energy. The guard they were with instructed them on how to activate and operate the machines to arm them.
"That's all there is to it," the guard said solemnly, "Now we just wait for-"
A massive explosion had suddenly cut him off, and the flames engulfed him. The Jedi had sensed it coming moments before, but only had time to save Keith. As the machines began to burn up and explode, the comm links blared with sudden screams from the remaining S.A.S forces. The Sith Imperial forces had infiltrated the base, and with the secret weapon mutilated, their defenses were now all but destroyed.
"Master, we must leave at once," Dakriel shouted over the blasts.
"No, Daks, take Keith and go," Xenos replied, "Find the general, and explain the situation. I'll deal with these Imperials."
The padawan and orphan wasted no time dashing back the way they had come, and Xenos stood ready as swarms of tanks and Sith Imperial troopers flooded into the base. Glancing from the massive machines back to the Imperial tanks, he smirked. Perhaps the machines could still serve their purpose, just not in the way the general had planned them to. He began to gather the force around him.
xxxxxxx
Malik had taken a few more moments to regain his stamina, which had been considerably drained by the dark side's ominous presence. The news he'd received both pleased and concerned him, yet he couldn't shake the warning: Beware your apprentice. Could it be that his weakness for Darth Mira would be his undoing? If so, he wondered if he could bring himself to kill her.
He'd spared her for both her skills and her beauty, but he also noticed his emotions for her conflicted with his desires from time to time. She served an asset as well as the ultimate distraction for him, and so he had tried making sending her away on missions a habit. Right now his only focus was on finding the Jedi swine that befowled his Sith Empire.
"Milord," a captain said as he approached the Sith Lord, "We have traced the transmission to a ship that recently arrived on Hoth. We beleive it may be the escapees."
"Very good, captain," Malik replied darkly, striding towards the holding cells, "Set our course for Hoth, we will discover the identity of this ship, and annhialate any lifeforms aboard."
"Right away, sir," the captain replied and disappeared back to the command deck.
Malik had sensed a shift in Willow's mind regarding his offer, and so knew that now was the time to speak with her once more. He was glad in a way that he need not waste her strength via torture, and that she seemed to feel more willing to comply. The doors to the holding cells hissed open, and he marched down the stairs confidently. He gave no pause to the fried cell mate next to her, who looked as though he had developed an intimate relationship with a massive laser torch.
"So, bounty hunter, have you changed your mind about hunting the Jedi down, and bringing them before me alive," he said in a solid tone.
She simply nodded with a smirk, admiring her handy work on the annoying cell mate. Surprisingly, she remained bound, and Malik almost began to wonder how she'd managed to pull off the kill. He returned his focus to the task at hand, and freed her from the cell. With a slight yank, she dropped to the floor, managing to pull herself up after a short moment. She glared up, and Malik spoke once more, leading her to the docking bay.
"We have repaired and upgraded your ship," he told her, "We have traced a ship we think may be the Jedi to the Hoth system. Bring them to me alive, kill everyone else. Leave no survivors."
"What about your troopers?"
"As I said," he replied with merely a glare, gesturing to her ship, "Good luck, bounty hunter."
"Well it's about time," Darth Mira's voice echoed from inside the Raven's Claw, "I was beginning to wonder when my pilot would show up."
"What's she doing aboard my ship," Willow growled.
.
"She will accompany you to the planet's surface," Malik retorted darkly, "If the Jedi are indeed down there, she will find and capture them with your help. There is zero margin for error here, ladies."
He strode off, back toward the command deck, where he would give new instructions for the troopers in the battle down below. Already, he could hear the sounds of their screams, while other comm links blared with vigerous shouts of victory. The battle was only just beginning, and this time the Jedi would not escape his grasp.