A/N: Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did. I am going to shoot to publish a new chapter every Friday. I may be late, but no later than Sunday. Anyway, enjoy chapter 11 and don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and Review. ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!
James was on a speeder flying at top speeds to the senate building. His mind kept flashing back to the warehouse. "Those eyes…those bloodthirsty eyes…" he thought. The fierceness of Andrew's attacks, the cruelty he had towards Chloe. He shivered. The screams he heard from her will forever haunt him.
He arrived at the senate building. He leaped off his speeder and ran inside. A couple of guards tried to stop him, but he cut them down without a second thought. He made his way to Sidious' office.
Sidious was looking out at Coruscant from his seat behind his desk. Mas Amedda was holding a holopad. "Lord Vader's findings on Toydaria were successful. A small rebel cell was hiding there. He plans to return for 'an urgent matter.'" Amedda told him. Sidious didn't respond.
The hissing of the office door turned Amedda's attention away from his boss and towards a frightened James. The four royal guards pointed their force pikes at him. "What in the hell is going on here?! Kill this intruder at once!" Amedda yelled.
The guards circled him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. James ignited his blade once more. All four guards lunged at him, but he swiftly cut the ends off all of their pikes and used the force to through them against the wall, snapping their spines. Sidious chuckled at the sound of his guards dying. He was still looking out at the planet.
James walked up right in front of his desk and knelt. Amedda looked to Sidious. "Sire, I should call for reinforcements?" Sidious waved him off. "It's already here," he told Amedda in a hushed tone. "Report," he said sternly.
James while still kneeling with his head down. "Mission failed. Chloe was killed, and Andrew escaped with the prisoner." He was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He wanted to cry, scream, and kill at the same time. Sidious kept his gaze on the horizon. "No matter. I have my best agent hunting them down as we speak. Your failure will not go unpunished. I know what happened at the warehouse. She was a liability, I needed him alive, and she almost ensured that didn't happen. Do not mourn for the death of a fool, but instead rejoice in the culling of weakness."
James clenched his fist and pounded it into the ground. "How can he say that?! Weakness? She helped me take down a Jedi Knight! She was an inspiration to the Empire!" he raised his head and glared at the back of his hood. Amedda grabbed hold of a concealed knife he had under his cloak. Sidious held out his hand, signaling for Amedda to stop.
"I sense your feelings, your hatred. Let it consume you. Let it flow through you. Strike me down and take my place!" Sidious told him. James was hesitant.
James was about to get up but was stopped by the hissing of the office door. He wanted to move, to see who had entered, but he couldn't. He froze. He shivered as if the temperature of the room had dropped below freezing. The familiar mechanical breathing told him all he needed to know about who entered.
"What is thy bidding, my Master?" the dark knight asked him as he knelt next to James. Sidious grinned. "I'm glad to hear of your success on Toydaria. You will be in charge of locating a large rebel base in the outer rim. My spies tell me they are amassing somewhere." Sidious told him. "It will be done, my Master." Vader still kept his position. Amedda spoke. "Amassing now? That seems illogical. They only just revealed themselves to the galaxy. Why gather? For an assault? To draw us in?" Amedda was going to keep going but was interrupted.
"Leave the thinking to me, Vice Chair." Vader spat. Amedda looked upon him with disdain. Sidious spoke. "Rise the two of you." they complied. "Boy, you will be given one more chance to capture Andrew. If you fail, I will personally send Lord Vader to kill you. Do we understand each other?" James nodded. "Vader, remind him what happens to failures."
It all happened so fast James couldn't react. A flash of crimson was all he got before dropping to his knees, screaming in agony. James couldn't see out of his right eye. He held to where it once was but felt the sizzling of flesh. Sidious cackled at the sounds of James' screams. "He'll pay for that!" James thought.
Vader left the office. James grew furious. "How could they not care? How could they be so cold? Do they not care for the lives of the people they are here to protect?" James thought as he still sat on the floor of sidious' office, holding his nonexistent eye.
A couple of days passed, and James stood on the bridge of an Imperial Star destroyer. He stood at parade rest. He wore black armor that mirrored an inquisitor with a black cape and had a scar from his jawline to his right eyebrow. His right eye was completely disintegrated. He tried to acquire cybernetics but was refused by Sidious. He wanted it to serve him as a reminder not to fail.
The starship was orbiting Kashyyyk. "Commander were are ready for bombardment." an Imperial officer told him. He looked out over the green world and nodded. Moments later, a shower of green laser fire rained down upon the planet.
The same Imperial officer came up to him. "Commander, you have a hailing from Lord Vader." James quickly turned around and headed to his chambers. He turned on the holo and knelt.
A blue glow then illuminated the dark room, and Vader stood tall. "My agent has located a Jedi. I will send you the coordinates, and you will help her kill them. Return to me with their lightsaber. The emperor is expecting success, don't disappoint. More importantly, do NOT get in her way." the holo shut off.
James stood up. The hissing of the door was all he could hear. "Commander, the Wookie rebels have a message for you." James turned around, took the holopad from him, and played the video.
A tall black-furred Wookie stood tall and began to yell. The text at the bottom of the screen translated what he was saying. "You Imperial bastards! You would have innocents killed for the sake of power! Women and children who had nothing to do with this are dead because of you!" the camera panned over to the burning of treehouses that the wookies lived in. women and Wookie children's corpses were littered across the landscape. The holo shut off when the second wave of fire rained down on their position.
James looked up at the officer. "What happened to the feed?" the Imperial officer had a smirk. "Imperial Intelligence located their position after this was sent and blasted them to oblivion. Now those overgrown monkeys are sure to get back to work." with that, the officer walked away. James looked at his feet. "I did that…I killed those innocent people…I..I thought I was helping eradicate an insurrection, not destroy a village." James' eyes watered. He felt nauseous. The images of the burning houses and the corpses were etched into his mind. "Did…a..am I on the right side?"