In the compressed isolation of her Y-wing's cockpit, Juno Eclipse screamed.
She slammed angry fists into the sides of her berth, howled until she was out of breath, then sucked in air and screamed again. She felt her throat go raw but couldn't stop herself.
She'd heard an adage once, she couldn't recall from where. How do you hurt someone who's lost everything? Give them back something broken. That was exactly what had happened and it was worse than she could ever have imagined. It would have been better for him to have died in the shaft, fighting the dark apprentice and buying her escape. But instead they'd been free, finally free, and he'd chosen to abandon her and give up his life for his vile maker's.
When she couldn't scream anymore she gave way to sobbing. The Starkiller who'd come back to her had been some twisted clone, bred to betray her and the Alliance, inculcated with absolute loyalty to Darth Vader. It was the only explanation. She'd allowed herself to rejoice for love of him but he'd been only a thing crafted in imitation of a real man. Because she'd let her heart lead her, everyone at Shenandor Prime was dead.
And that was only the best option. Perhaps he'd always been meant to betray her, from the moment they'd first met. Perhaps everything he'd ever done had been part of the trap. Hunting fugitive Jedi, collecting the Rebellion's leaders, then rescuing them from the Death Star. Even loving her. All the while he'd been the Empire's pawn, and so had she.
It was too terrible to contemplate. Juno wanted only to huddle inside the Y-wing cockpit and sail into hot, star-scorched oblivion.
She barely noticed when the shieldship came close. The voice of its pilot scratched on her comlink. "Please cut engines. We'll tow you along with our tractor beam."
For some reason, she did. The shieldship protected her with an umbrella of shadow. Slowly, the corona-glow around Shenandor Prime faded as they withdrew from the planet. A starscape assembled before her and so did her own thoughts. She remembered not just Starkiller's betrayal but all its impact.
Thumbing the comm line open she rasped, "Shieldship… Is there another spacecraft with us? The one I came in on?"
The reply came after a pause. "No, ma'am. We, um, thought we caught some engine-flares leaving the planet, but they disappeared."
In that instance Juno knew Vader had escaped on the Rogue Shadow, cloaked it, and now hung beside her in the shieldship's penumbra. Immediately she closed the link to the shieldship and began scouring the space around her for any hint of the Rogue Shadow. It must have been close, so close, but she couldn't find any sign. If this damned courier ship had had weapons she'd have sprayed them wildly, just for the chance of revenge on Vader.
Instead she did the only thing she could. Juno turned the comm one once more and set it to broadcast on the widest frequency. She didn't even think of her words as she spoke; she just let them flow.
"Damn it, you monster, where are you? Where are you? He died for you! That's what you made him for, wasn't it? All this time he was just your karking puppet!"
No response, not even the mechanical rhythm of the Dark Lord's breath.
She shouted even louder, "I know you can hear me! You're right here, I know it! Shoot me, damn it! I know you're there, you have weapons, shoot me! Kill me like you killed him!"
Juno ravaged her throat screaming so loud. And still, there was no response.
She huddled forward in her cockpit and sobbed once again. Through her grief and anger she was unsurprised. Darth Vader worked cruelty like a master and he knew that survival could be the worst fate of all.
Eventually the shieldship pilot hailed her again. If he'd heard her mad outburst he gave no sign. "Ma'am, we're almost at the edge of the hot zone. I'll tell you when you're clear for lightspeed."
Juno had to wipe her eyes clear again. "Pilot… thank you..."
"The Imps have a cruiser inbound, Vindicator-class. Looks like it's sent a squadron of TIEs as vanguards."
The bleakness in his voice anchored her to reality. Her entire life lay in ruins but hers was not the only one. "I can't… I can't get you aboard. This ship… it's too small..."
"I see that, ma'am." In a melancholy tone the pilot added, "I'm just glad I could save someone. You've got to get out of here and tell people what happened. Nobody else can."
Telling would mean reliving, and Juno didn't know if she could bear that. She asked, "Did you see anyone escape from the rescue fleet?"
"No, ma'am. I… I think you're it. So you understand-"
"I understand." She swallowed. Yes, he must have heard her outburst. And he was right: somebody had to survive this slaughter. If only she could decide what tale to tell.
The next few minutes drew out forever. She checked her scanners and watched the TIEs approach but saw no sign of the Rogue Shadow. Yet Darth Vader was here. She knew it; the man she'd been fooled into loving would not have failed in his final mission.
"We're clear, ma'am," the shieldship said. "Fly true."
"Thank you, pilot," Juno said. Her voice cracked; she couldn't get out anymore.
The TIEs were almost on her. They'd tear the sluggish shieldship apart in seconds and overwhelm her Y-wing after that. She might have let them, but she couldn't bring herself to waste her escort's sacrifice. The day was already drenched in pointlessly shed blood.
She turned on the nav computer. A course was already patched in for one of the Rebel fleets' secret rendezvous points, a location she doubted that had been shared with the Furnace's crew. One last gift from PROXY, it seemed. At least one of her comrades had stayed true. She couldn't help but smile through her tears.
Then, as the howl of TIE fighters rose behind her, Juno pulled the throttle and jumped to hyperspace. Shenandor was immediately lightyears behind, but she knew her heart would never leave it.
-{}-
Grand Admiral Takel hardly looked like a man in a moment of professional triumph. His white grand admiral's uniform was stained with ash across the stomach, his hair was disheveled, and his eyes and hands still twitched from a fading glitterstim-high. His ship was in even worse shape. The Rebels had savaged Magic Dragon's hull, in some places leaving black scorch-marks half a kilometer long. Entire weapon turrets had been gouged out and full decks emptied into space. The star destroyer's insides were little better, as its Jedi invader and cut a blood-drenched and fire-scored swathe to the bridge itself.
It would take a long time to repair the Magic Dragon but Takel was determined to see it done. After all, he'd damned well earned his victory.
When Darth Vader landed in the destroyer's forward hangar and stepped onto the flight deck, Takel saw that the Dark Lord had suffered damage of his own. His cape was town off just past the shoulders, burn-marks and dirt marred his ebon armor, and his helmet was dented in several places. He less strode down the landing ramp than staggered and his rasping breath came irregularly.
Nonetheless, Takel and his honor guard all snapped salutes at the sight of him. They waited for stormtroopers to exit Vader's ship, or at least the package they'd retrieved from Kamino a seeming-lifetime ago.
But there was nothing. Darth Vader, it seemed, was the only survivor.
"My Lord," Takel said, still holding the salute, "Welcome aboard. It's a great pleasure to see you."
Vader stepped within two meters of him and simply stared.
The grand admiral cleared his throat. "As I'm sure you've seen, we eliminated the Rebel fleet sent to relieve the base at Shenandor. It was a difficult battle—as I'm sure yours was— but we prevailed, in part thanks to Master Fett here."
The bounty had shadowed Takel the whole way to the hangar and stepped to his side now. Two masked faces regarded each other. Neither Fett nor Vader spoke, but Takel felt like an intruder in an intimate meeting. Vader's head tilted down to note the lightsaber dangling from Fett's belt.
"There was a Jedi general leading the assault on my destroyer," Takel added. "He was most formidable, but Master Fett disposed of him."
Vader looked back to that Mandalorian helm. The bounty hunter supplied, "Rahm Kota."
The Dark Lord did not speak or even nod. He simply pivoted and walked past the rows of stormtroopers for the hangar's exit. Takel and Boba Fett watched in silence until he'd disappeared through the doors.
"It seems we all had challenging fights," Takel muttered.
Boba Fett glanced at him. Takel shirked from his own dirty face reflected in the mirror-black T-visor. Then the bounty hunter turned and followed Vader's path out of the hangar, leaving the grand admiral alone.
Takel felt exhausted and hollow. This wasn't how triumph was supposed to be, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that a little spice would go a long way to improving his mood.
The grand admiral was a simple man in many ways, and he counted himself lucky for it. Whatever was ailing Darth Vader was probably harder to cure, and Takel did not envy the Dark Lord, not at all.
-{}-
Juno Eclipse came to the Rebel base on Dantooine less because she wanted to and more because she had no place else to go.
She'd actually thought about finding some far-off planet to bunker in. Far from the Empire, far from the Rebellion, she might make a new existence. Yet all her life she'd required order, purpose, and a cause. Once it had been the Empire, later the Rebellion. In the very beginning it had been begging for approval from her stern, unhappy father. If she abandoned all those she knew that she'd end up like Rahm Kota in his derelict days, wallowing in alcohol and regret.
Even then, it was tempting just to flee. But she couldn't quite bring herself to, just like she'd not let herself die at Shenandor. So she went to Dantooine to join the only comrades she had left.
Only they didn't feel like comrades anymore. There were familiar faces, they acted glad to see her alive, and they tried to sympathize with her loss, but there was too much gone for any stranger to comprehend. Not just Starkiller and PROXY but Rahm Kota, Commodore Viedas, even Nitram, her first officer who'd died aboard the Salvation. All the Rebel personnel who talked to her, for debriefing or just attempted solace, felt like total strangers.
There was one exception. Leia Organa wasn't at Dantooine when Juno first arrived but a week later the princess of Alderaan stopped by. A brief detour, she explained, in between official diplomatic stops to Mid-Rim worlds. She couldn't stay long, but she'd wanted to talk to Juno.
Walking the outskirt of the Rebel base, they watched tall grass ripple gold over sunset hills and talked. At first Juno repeated what she'd already described in her reports. She talked about the decision to take Vader to Shenandor Prime instead of Dantooine, which now looked fortuitous. She described the initial Imperial appearance in the system, her call for help, and the answer from Rahm Kota and Yat-de Viedas. And she talked about the Imperial commando squad delivered in that special freighter, the battle with the stormtroopers and the arrival of the dark apprentice.
She also talked about Starkiller. Kota had elided him from official reports on the Battle of Kamino, but Juno described his actions from his arrival on Salvation when it was under attack, through his besting Darth Vader at Timina City to his battle with the twisted clone.
She still hadn't told anyone that he'd died to save Darth Vader. As she talked to Leia, though, she was tempted. He relationship with the princess of Alderaan was complicated; not full friends but more than comrades. In their previous talks Juno had admired the younger woman's energy and devotion to the cause and had tried to provide guidance in the few places where Leia seemed to need it, which was mostly her stretched-thin personal life. Neither friends nor comrades; sisters-in-arms, perhaps, and Juno had fancied herself the elder sibling.
Though a part of her wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to tell Leia how Starkiller had died. She only told the princess what she'd told everyone else: he and PROXY had died bravely covering her escape. How she wished it were true.
But Leia was perceptive. As Juno repeated her lie the princess watched her carefully, as though trying to peer through obfuscation to the truth. But Leia also knew when to be gentle, and she did not press Juno.
Instead, once the story was done, they watched the sunset grass for a while. As the wind took on the chill of night Leia asked, "Do you know why chose the symbol we did as the Rebellion's icon?"
"It was a family crest…" Juno considered her words. "Galen Marek's family."
"But do you know why we chose it?"
Juno had an idea; it sickened her now. "Why?"
"As a reminder."
"Of… him?"
"Yes, but there's more than that. It's a reminder of what we choose to believe. When my father, Mon Mothma, and Bel Iblis all saw what Starkiller was willing to do, what he finally sacrificed for them… I think it awoke something in them all. They'd had a hero give up his life for their cause. They couldn't not continue his fight. They've got all sorts of disagreements between themselves, especially after Shenandor, but I think the memory of Starkiller is holding them together."
It was all based on a lie, but Juno couldn't bring herself to say it. "He inspired them."
"He inspired us all to be better than what we are. I think, maybe, it's the best gift anyone can give."
But it was a lie. Juno's hands turned to fists. She stared off at the sunset, wishing she could be alone but also grateful for Leia's company. The princess was neither friend nor comrade, but she was the closest Juno had to either now. Everyone else was gone.
Leia asked her, "What do you plan to do next?"
"Whatever the Rebellion requires of me."
"There are many places you can go. Someone of your rank and experience can get a say where she'll be sent."
"I hadn't thought about it." That much was true.
Leia considered. "Working with Kota like you did, you've got a reputation for aggressive action. Would you like to work under Garm Bel Iblis? He's trying to put together more military assets."
"You mean replace what we've lost."
Reluctantly, Leia nodded.
Juno sighed. "I feel like I've seen battles enough."
"There are other options. My father is putting together an intelligence ring, and with your experience as an Imperial agent-"
"No. I don't think that will work either." She didn't tell Leia she was terrified she'd get Bail killed, just like she had so many comrades. "I want to be… somewhere far away."
Leia considered. "There's many worlds where the Alliance is trying to shore up local resistance cells. Those jobs are mostly organizational, some espionage, guerrilla combat if it's required. They could certainly use more experienced leadership."
"All right. I'd like something like that."
"I'll have my father look into options for you."
"Thank you." Juno closed her eyes against the ending day. "I feel like I need… new places. New faces."
A new start, she thought, but that was one thing she could never have. When she shut her eyes she still saw his face bent close and smiling after their final kiss; right before his final betrayal. Deep down she knew that no matter how many new people she met and faces she saw, nothing would erase his. For the rest of her days, she would be haunted by his love.