Star Wars: Child'e
Author's note: This is an alternative Star Wars story that is NOT a sequel to my first Star Wars story (Star Wars, Dark Lord of a Different Kind). This is a musing kind of story that is in part based upon LordGrise's desire for something more Imperial for Illyana. I have no ending for this story idea but instead, as is my wont, I've placed Illyana in a situation and we see what happens as I always like to explore Illyana's character in different circumstances (and these are different).
This is very much an alternative reality and is not tied any of my other Illyana stories. I've been mulling over this idea for some time but the new Disney+ show Boba Fett helped crystallize it. And in this story Illyana has never heard of Star Wars nor did my story Star Wars, Dark lord of a different kind take place for her. This is very much a one off story.
And as I said, I don't have an ending planned so I'm almost much in the dark you as to where this story will go. Incidentally, Illyana thought of herself as Child'e, or Darkchilde rather then Illyana before she regained her soul, as she was but the dregs of what she once was. I'm always chilled by a statement made to her at the height of her plan as one the villains asked her as she hung in chains before him.
"Illyana Rasputin I presume."
And her response, perfection in writing, and oh so self descriptive.
"A little."
That's how she thought of her self. A little. The memories but not the who as it were. Just what was left.
Part 1a: Fate that we make
DarkChilde's plans had come to fruition. Her soul, or Illyana's soul as she did not consider herself to truly be Illyana, was now her's.
The Elder Gods now destroyed.
And the piper's bill had come due. Scott had been convinced that the best recourse was for others to incarcerate her instead of the X-Men locking her up in the X-Brigg.
Convinced by the Avengers.
By the Dr. Strange.
By Dr. Doom.
By the Fantastic Four.
By Odin.
And others.
Convinced that all they planned was incarceration.
Reform.
Therapy.
Please, let us help her.
But not all told the truth.
For some the true intent was the destruction of a threat to all reality. And the removal of the only magical practitioner that the Mutants had played into the plans of some of the convincers; her incidental death being but a bonus.
For all the Mutants knew, she was incarcerated in a pocket dimension, one they could visit with sufficient warnings so as to prove that she was getting proper care and was not being harmed.
The plan had worked.
Darkchilde was stripped of her rulership of Limbo.
Stripped of her mutant abilities.
Stripped of her magics.
Stripped of her soul sword.
Stripped of her life…
As I said, the plan had worked, sort of… The plan for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor worked as well, and how did that turn out for the perpetrators?
In the holocaust of magical casting that had caused her demise, no body was found. Consumed was the general consensus as all attempts to locate her failed. Surely she had to have been destroyed.
Surely…
That was what her surviving executioners told themselves, surviving as there had been unexpected… difficulties (that whole what was the consequences of Pearl Harbor kind of thing). Survivors in that their numbers were reduced. And a bonus one might suppose in that only some of the survivors were maimed. That lack of a body was problematic, but that she was dead was much more comforting then imagining a vengeful insane DarkChilde plotting her revenge.
Because…
Hmmmm, best to not go there because… The Elder Gods did serve as an example of just how good she was at planning.
And gaining her revenge had been pointed out by a certain Loki.
But hours became days became weeks became…
She was gone, and good riddance.
Any official angst of the mutants when, or if, they discovered the actual fate of Magik was of no regard; and one did have to admit that more then a few of the mutants would celebrate her removal.
So, Illyana was Not placed in the X-Brigg.
Illyana was Not to be on the Extinction Team.
Illyana was Not to become part of the Phoenix Five.
The future of Mutant kind, and Earth, was altered; and not for the better.
But was she really dead?
A few had doubts as the Bard said it so well.
There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Part 1b: Intro
Star Wars
Episode 4.5
The emboldened Rebellion gains strengths and support with the destruction of the Empire's the Death Star
The Empire reels with the consequences of that loss
May things hereto hidden and suppressed have begun to reemerge
While many may be enemies of the Empire, such are not necessary friends of the Rebellion
But now, there is a another…
Part 1c: Tatooine (part one)
Upon the sandy surface of Tatooine, the two suns were high in the sky over the scorched sandy landscape, a figure can be is walking in the shimmering heat waves, although shambling would be a better description. We see Child'e, dressed in torn rags, injured, dirty, very badly sunburned, blistered, in desperate need of hydration, with a bloody rag wrapped around her right hand. She is stumbling forward across the desert. Falling every minute or two, only to get back up and stumble on.
One foot after another… That was all that was left for her to focus on. Just keep going forward until she could walk no more.
So...
She was reduced to crawling on the burning sands.
To finally collapse.
To awake hours later even worse off as the heat of the day was replaced by the chill of the night. To again stumble to her feet, and shamble onward.
Until…
Lights up ahead.
Which turned out to be a cantina in the middle of nowhere. Which, in hindsight, was perhaps an indication that the clientele might be less then upstanding citizens, not that any such thoughts occurred to her as her need was so great.
We see her shamble past the few speeders, bike and flying car based, that were parked in front of the establishment, and stumble inside.
The sound of cruel laughter and catcalls, then…
Screams.
Female screams, her screams as they…
The lights flickered as the power fluctuated.
A flash as the breakers blew plunging the establishment into darkness.
More screams, but male this time, smashing sounds along with flash of blaster bolts being fired.
Then…
Silence as nobody emerge from the now darkened cantina.
And so the night passes.
Part 1d: All things change in the twinkling of a moment
We see Emperor Palpatine at the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, the Palace that had once been the Jedi Temple. It was nighttime and he was strolling the empty corridors that once housed the Jedi library. He stops and exclaims.
"What…"
The volcanic planet of Mustafar, where Vader's Palace had been built. He was absent his armor as he floated in a Bacta tank, one of the few times he could be free of the enclosing prison of the suit. He had been dreaming but awoke.
"… Was…"
The swamp planet Dagobah, the current home of Yoda as he hid from the Empire. His home was close by a tree that was strong with the Dark Side of the Force, which hid his aura from the endless searching by the Emperor. He jerked upright from his slumber.
"… That?!"
Once Darth Maul, but now just Maul, head of the criminal organization Crimson Dawn, stopped in mid meeting with some subordinates and focused upon something that fluttered at the edge of his mind as he mused aloud.
"… I've never felt it's like…"
Ahsoka Tano, concealed starts for but a moment as suddenly she felt that He had found her. "Vader…?" No… not Him, something… … A something that felt… darker?
Luke somewhere in the Galaxy aboard the Millennium Falcon. He paused as he went about some minor maintenance duties, and internal complaints about lack of proper component cleaning and preventative maintenance that Han just simply refused to pay attention to. He looked about in confusion, for a moment he thought he had heard… something. Then with a shrug he resumed changing out some components that would have been just fine if Han would just clean…
And so it went, every significant Force sensitive in the Galaxy had felt something.
A roar, a scream, a cry of… something
Angry.
Terrified.
Pain.
Lost.
Rage.
SUCH RAGE!
Then sudden silence.
A threat?
Competition?
Opportunity?
Each judged what they had felt as it applied to their situation. And some were in a situation to attempt to do something about it.
Part 1e: What came before
How do things begin? In many ways all beginnings are the ending of something. There is always a prior prologue, even back to the first moment as 'Let there be light' means there was a time before. But in this case the story really does begin with an ending. And… perhaps a song by Garth Brooks called the Thunder Rolls captures that moment.
…
And the lightnin' flashes in her eyes
And he knows that she knows
And the thunder rolls
And the thunder rolls
The thunder rolls
And the lightnin' strikes
Another love grows cold
On a sleepless night
As the storm blows on
Out of control
Deep in her heart
The thunder rolls
Lightning struck the ground as Thor raged. Raged in that he struck at all that was around him. Raged as he repeatedly slammed Mjollnir upon the ground. Raged as the lightning danced, called by his rage. It was a dry lightning, there being nothing but the discharge and the wind as there were no clouds, no rain. Long did the Thunder god rail and smite in his rage.
His grief.
But he struck nothing of note, for there was nothing but earth and sky about him. A true foe would have been ideal, but any such creatures in this place were now but dust. Only the firmaments of a reality remained, remained and one supposed shrugged at this display of might. Shrugged and did nothing. For in truth, does what is dead not just lie there regardless of the abuse heaped upon it?
In the end there was but one final crackle of a lightning strike as Thor knelt and bowed his head, the drama of which would have been enhanced by pounding rain, but it was dry dust he knelt in, and the desiccated air drank his tears away before they could fall from his face.
The voice was a dry as the air is it spoke forth. "Feeling better?"
A growl like muffled thunder from Thor. "Mock me not brother."
A sigh from he who had spoken. "I don't, but extravagant displays of anger, satisfying as they may be, are not… useful. Especially here."
Here being… um… just where were they? Just a rock strewn plane is all that can be seen, with a featureless light orange sky. And as the scene rotates three hundred and sixty degrees to show the emptiness, the god Loki is shown. This is teenage Loki, or perhaps young adult Loki, recently aged from his adolescent incarnation.
Thor's left hand clenched at the ground, giving him a fistful of pebbles, grit, and dust. Which he then threw in frustration as he rose to his feet. "There is not but dust and death here."
"As wrought be us." Replied Loki.
Thor strode forward and got in Loki's face. If this place would not answer to his rage, then raging at his brother was the next course of action. After all, Thor had raged at his brother for millenniums and had always found that to be satisfying. "Tis was no doing of mine!"
Just a cool gaze from Loki in the face of Thor's rage, then. "I loved him as well Thor."
A scream of rage from Thor as he turned from Loki and smote the ground anew with Mjollnir! Rock and debris erupted forth as both Thor and Loki were hurled away in the explosion. Then all was dust.
Dust and the coughing of Loki, and his sarcasm. "Smote with great smotatuding. But this avails us not brother. Odin is slain and with him Limbo and its queen."
"And the ten realms convulse with his absence." Growled Thor after his own fit of coughing. "Odin is gone, and with him his power. Asgard has lost its king and his heirs lack the might he wielded."
Loki rose and dusted himself off. "Meaning us. The Odin force is gone, consumed in the holocaust that unmade her because Father thought her helpless."
"Which she was not." Added Thor. "The vile demoness lied, her bindings were not as complete as we were led to believe. The enchantments should have bound her, sufficient to contain her while we… Father... the others…"
"Slew her." Finished Loki. "Slew her at the only place that Odin felt assurance that she would then be truly dead. Limbo. The center of her power. The center of her."
"It was that sword of hers that was our undoing." Growled Thor.
"Yes, a sword through the forehead does tend to make things go awry."
"He…" Thor choked up. "He… shielded all of us, it was his last act as…"
"Father was unmade, and in that unmaking destroyed all that was within Limbo."
"Do… you think she might have survived?"
"I hope not. Nothing should have survived that. Not Limbo, not that sword of hers, nor herself. She should have reduced to dust as was all of Limbo."
"Should?"
"Should brother, for if not. I would hazard a guess that she would be most… upset at our actions."
Part 1f: Tatooine (part two)
Daytime.
The image of the isolated cantina, viewed with a long range binocular viewer as an armored figure surveys the establishment, and in fact has been surveying it for several hours; said armored figure being behind a small rocky outcropping Then with an irritated grumble, puts away the viewer, mounts a speeder cycle, and warily approaches.
The figure parks the bike off to the side, draws a short blaster rifle, and approaches the front entrance from the left side. A pause, but nothing is heard. A quick entrance, more of a rushing kind of dive and then a quick scan of the room from behind an over turned table.
Death.
Two bodies are hanging from the ceiling, hanging in that their heads appear to have been smashed into the stony roof.
The cantina's furniture is scattered about and somewhat smashed, as if a whirlwind had erupted within the room and dashed the contents about.
The contents including the inhabitants.
One body was impaled upon the wall behind the bar, a body that the armored figure apparently recognizes as the figure stands and utters in a somewhat electronic sounding voice.
"Dead then." Then a soft sigh as dead meant less payment. But less was better then no payment.
A more detailed examination of the cantina found nothing of interest.
It was a soft sound, just the slight shifting, but the figure turned lightning fast and aimed the blaster rifle at one of the bodies. It was lying face down, dressed in torn rags, with a right hand missing the three main fingers and thumb as if a small bomb had blasted it apart.
Blonde.
Female?
Badly hurt.
And… another slight shift.
Breathing.
A careful approach but no additional movement.
A nudge of an armored foot turned the body over.
Definitely human female as her naked front torso was exposed. Badly hurt, sun blasted, and it looked like the cantina's inhabitants had been playing with her when whatever happened here happened.
Well… the body on the wall was still worth half the bounty. And his curiosity was peaked as to what the hell had happened here, and just what or who had cost him half of his bounty.
The armored figure spoke again. "Slave One, take off and land at my position. Prep the medical bay. And the freezer."
"Yes Boba Fett." Replied the emotionless voice of the ship.