Amazed I didn't get any angry comments after the last chapter. Then again, I didn't get any comments whatsoever on the last five chapters at all, so I guess I'm not that shocked. Fix your notifications, fanfiction!
Janna found herself unable to move, paralyzed with shock. She watched Star sink to her knees at the edge of the gap, gaze fixated on the spot where she had last seen Marco. It didn't feel real, as if she were disconnected from her body, watching through a stranger's eyes.
Motion in her peripheral vision drew Janna's attention. It was the purge trooper on the other side of the gap, pacing slowly at the edge, looking lost and confused.
Something else caught Janna's attention, something much larger overhead: a long, narrow ship rose above the assembly complex in the distance, turned toward the east, and sailed off toward the horizon, climbing toward the sky.
They made it…
Star stared into the inky blackness of the canyon. She, too, was shocked beyond reaction. A tidal wave of emotions swept over her, all of it too overwhelming to act upon. She wanted to scream. Cry. Curl up in a ball. She couldn't. She could only stare into the empty void, fixated on where she'd last seen her best friend as he disappeared from sight, his brown eyes shimmering with fear as he plunged to the bottom of the gap which would serve as his grave.
At last, Janna finally forced her legs to move. She took one cautious step toward Star-
-and then froze again.
Where did that blaster shot come from?!
Janna whipped around to face the ridge above them. The sky was filled with droids soaring toward them. They opened fire.
Janna gasped and dove behind a large nearby rock. "Star! Star, move!"
The Padawan didn't even react. Blaster fire peppered the ground around her. Janna darted from behind the rock and tackled her friend, grabbing Star around the midsection and diving both of them behind another boulder large enough to provide cover.
Janna drew Tom's blaster, resting it on the rock in front of her to steady her aim as she returned fire. She glanced at Star, hoping that her Jedi friend would be leaping into action.
She wasn't.
Star had barely raised herself from where she'd landed when Janna tackled her to the ground, her eyes still staring at the cliffside.
"Star!" Janna had already knocked seven droids out of the sky, but more were coming, and fast. "Star!" She looked over again. Star was gone, both of her lightsabers laying in the spot where she had last been.
It didn't take Janna long to find her, however. Star had crawled to the edge of the cliff, turned around, and was lowering herself over.
"Star! What are you doing?!" Janna scrambled after her, trying to stay low enough that the rock would still provide some amount of cover. She grabbed Star by the wrist.
"Let go of me!" Star cried, trying to shake herself free of Janna's grasp. "I have to get down there!"
"Star!"
"Let me go!"
Tears were forming in the corners of Star's eyes. "I have to save him!"
"Star!"
"I have to-!"
"Marco is gone, Star!" Their gaze met. Janna's eyes pleaded with Star. Blaster bolts were beginning to impact around them. "Marco is gone, Star! You can't help him! I need your help to get out of here, or we'll both be dead!"
A tear left a streak down Star's face. Neither moved.
"Please, Star."
At last, the Mewni Princess pulled herself back up to solid ground. The girls scrambled back behind the rock again, and Janna resumed return fire. The droids were much closer now, which did make them easier for Janna to hit, but their return fire was also becoming much more dangerous. More lasers seemed to be streaming down from the ridge line above them, but it was too far away for Janna to see the shooters.
Star retrieved the lightsabers from the ground where she'd left them. She stared at Marco's in her left hand for a moment, squeezing the durasteel hilt tightly between the metal fingers of her cybernetic arm. She remembered how excited her best friend had been to recover Kit Fisto's former lightsaber during their adventure on the Moonshadow, returned to him again after being lost for so long. Now she supposed it was hers.
Star wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, Janna, here's the plan. On the count of three, run."
"That's your whole plan?!"
"Yes. Don't stop until we get back to the Raventalon. Just stay behind me. I promise, I will not let you be hit."
Janna said no more. She simply nodded, and went on shooting down droids as she waited for Star's signal.
Star took a deep breath, drawing deep from the well-spring of the Force within. "One."
Janna ceased firing.
"Two."
A pair of emerald blades ignited.
"Three."
The girls bolted from their cover amidst a flurry of blaster fire raining down on them from above. Star's lightsabers whirled and hummed with such intensity that they almost appeared to bend as she deflected shot after shot away from herself and Janna. Both girls shot down several droids, but there were just too many to destroy them all, and they were catching up fast.
As they cleared the far edge of the canyon, they angled their trajectory to the right, away from the high ridge where the purge troopers rained fire down upon them.
"They're getting away!" Mina cried. "Go after them!"
The nearest purge trooper nodded. "Yes, Sir!"
They hurried for a trio of speeder bikes waiting a few meters away. The troopers paired up and hopped aboard, wasting no time speeding away after the escaping Jedi and her companion.
And then Mina realized that she and the seventh purge trooper were left stranded on foot without a ride.
"Hey, wait a minute! What about me?!"
The blaster fire from the droids was becoming overwhelming, the arial D1's now drawing in close. Eventually, Star was forced to stop running, pacing backwards to continue deflecting their fire.
Janna made herself small behind Star's back. She felt an energy bolt graze the hem of her skirt. "Star!" she cried. "This isn't working! We'll never make it!"
Star risked a glance behind her. A dozen meters further along the path, the ground, which had been rising up away from the canyon, sharply dropped down by about a meter due to a fault line. "Get behind that drop and take cover!" she told Janna. "Hurry!"
So Captain Ordonia grit her teeth and sprinted for it as quickly as her legs would carry her. Blaster bolts peppered the ground all around her, but she managed to roll past the drop unharmed. She pressed herself close to the ground and waited.
Star took a deep breath, feeling the Force flow through her. She had never attempted this before, and she had never seen it performed. While still deflecting oncoming lasers with Marco's lightsaber in her left hand, she reared back her mechanical right arm and then flung her own lightsaber as hard as she could.
"RrrrrRRRRRAAAH!"
The laser sword spun like a glowing emerald propeller as it sailed through the air, guided by the Force. It arced out wide to her right, then, following a circular trajectory, curved back toward the droids. The whirling plasma sawed its way through one droid after another in quick succession, ruined metal corpses falling like rain.
By the time the lightsaber reached the end of its travel and landed firmly back in Star's hand, the number of droids in the air had been halved. Without even a moment's hesitation, Star backflipped into the air, landing beyond the drop where Janna waited in cover. "Come on!" she urged. "Keep going!"
So the pair took off again, climbing the long, gentle slope away from the canyon, Star resuming her protective defense while Janna returned fire. Halfway to the Raventalon, poor Janna was out of breath, exhausted from the intense workout she'd been experiencing nearly nonstop all day. She briefly considered how she would normally make fun of Tom for getting winded while she soldiered on, but unfortunately, Janna had reached the definitive edge of her own physical limitations. Her lungs burned. Her muscles ached. She was even getting a blister on her finger from squeezing the stiff trigger of the WESTAR-32 so many times.
This stupid blaster is so heavy! How does Tom carry this thing?! Janna lamented to herself as she shot down three more droids. I won't even be able to hold it up soon!
Her exhaustion was soon the least of her concerns regarding Tom's weapon. As she pulled the trigger for what she imagined was the millionth time that day, the gun clicked, but no laser sprang from its barrel. She tried again and again, but to no avail.
"Star," Janna panted. "I'm… *gasp* …out of ammo. *pant pant* And I don't thin…*gasp* …think I can run any more."
Once again, Star quickly scanned the area. Ahead and to the right grew some very strange vegetation, something like a tree, but not not made of wood. It appeared sturdy enough to provide adequate cover. The droids had been significantly thinned, but there were still at least two dozen remaining. "There!" Star gestured with her lightsaber while deflecting with Marco's. "Take cover over there!"
So Janna hurried for the shelter of the tree, diving behind it as blaster bolts peppered the ground around her. A small but sharp rock dug into her left knee as she landed, severing the skin and sending a sharp pain shooting down her leg. She grit her teeth, instinctively clutching at her knee cap, barely noticing the sounds of whirring lightsaber blades and blaster fire behind her.
"Augh!"
Gingerly rising to a kneel, Janna grasped the plant and hauled herself back to her feet. By the time she did, she realized all had fallen silent. Peering out from behind the tree revealed Star standing statue-still all alone, twin emerald blades still glowing in her hands. Scattered all about the rocky ground around her were the bits and pieces of dismembered and decapitated security droids. Star had destroyed every last one.
Janna gingerly hobbled up behind her, the smuggler's left leg barely able to support any weight. Star was breathing long, slow, deep breaths. Janna looked down at Star's hands. Her organic left hand gripped Marco's lightsaber so hard it had turned stark white. She opened her mouth to say something, but words would not come.
Anything she might have said were lost as they caught sight of a dust cloud moving rapidly in their direction. The loose particulate was being kicked up by the repulsors of three approaching speeder bikes.
"You have to get back to the ship, Janna." Star kept her eyes locked on the approaching bikes. "Run!"
Janna could clearly see that the riders were clad in the same intimidating black armor as the troopers they had faced in the hanger. "Star, I'm not gonna leave you! You can't defeat them all alone!"
"I know! But you don't even have a weapon you can use to defend yourself. You'll die!"
Janna was taken aback by the tone of Star's voice. The Padawan finally turned to face her. "They're after me. They won't follow you, I know it. You have to get back to the ship while I keep them busy. Hopefully you can make it back before they overwhelm me."
That was logic Janna could not argue with. It was their best bet for survival. And every passing second was a second longer that Star would have to hold off six of those nearly invincible troopers by herself. So, without even replying, Janna resumed the mad dash for the Raventalon.
The speeder bikes came to a halt in front of Star a few seconds later. The Padawan had been correct: the purge troopers didn't care one bit about Janna, completely ignoring the smuggler girl as she hobbled away. The troopers dismounted from the bikes, drawing electrostaffs and electrobatons, triggering on the crackling violet electricity as they quickly surrounded Star. Star, meanwhile, did not move so much as a muscle, lightsabers brandished defensively.
"Surrender, Jedi."
"No," Star said quietly.
"Hostility will be met with deadly resistance. Drop your weapons."
"You're the ones who will be met with deadly resistance."
The purge troopers advanced, tightening their circle. Star leapt off the ground, propelled by the Force, sailed over the troopers' heads, and landed on the ground behind them.
"Since you haven't tried to shoot me, then I assume your orders are to take me alive," said Star. "Go ahead. Try. I dare ya." Any trace of humor was gone from her typically bubbly voice. This taunt was made with complete and total seriousness. She assumed her ready position; Marco's lightsaber held defensively, her own prepared to strike.
"Take her!" one of the troopers commanded the others, and they advanced as one.
Star's blades clashed against the first electro-weapons to reach her.
And the battle was on.
If Janna had been capable of rational thought, she likely would have been thinking about how grateful she was for adrenaline. Every time her left foot connected with the ground, her injured knee sent pain shooting through her leg. Under normal circumstances, Janna would have barely been able to walk. Fortunately for her, her veins were pulsing with adrenaline. Her jaw tightly locked, she pushed herself onward, ignoring the pain as she hurried toward the Raventalon with as much speed as her exhausted and injured legs would carry her. She was barely even cognitive of the warm trickle of blood running down her shin.
After a perceived eternity of painful running, Janna finally reached the shallow canyon where the Raventalon had been hidden. The canyon walls here were angled rather than vertical, which had allowed Janna and the others to simply walk out. Descending the steep gradient with an injured knee, however…
After a brief moment of consideration, Janna took a few steps back from the edge and took as much of a running start as she could muster. Reaching the precipice, Janna jumped, just a light push-off, and braced herself to touch down on the slope. One hand dragging the ground behind her for balance, her boots slid down the embankment, a much quicker and less painful method than walking.
A few dozen meters away, the Raventalon awaited its captain's arrival. Janna hurried for the YV-560 as quickly as her legs would let her.
"Alright, you," she muttered to the freighter as she hobbled up the ramp. "Don't you dare give me any trouble."
As her journey neared it's end, Janna's adrenaline was quickly wearing off. The pain in her injured leg ramped up in intensity as she made her way up to the cockpit. Her vision blurred, and she steadied herself on the bulkheads.
Janna quickly hauled herself up into the pilot's seat, rapidly flicking switches in succession, barely even registering her own movements as her appendages worked on autopilot.
Fortunately, the engines gave her no trouble, starting up easily with a low roar. With no time to waste, Janna commanded the Raventalon off the ground and zoomed toward where she had last seen her Jedi companion.
Given the time to consider it, Star would probably conclude that she had never moved so quickly in her life. But, regardless of the fact that she was far too busy to waste time thinking about much of anything, Star was barely thinking at all. Her mind had slipped so deeply into the Force that she was near fully entranced.
The Force guided her lightsabers, each performing completely independent of the other. Attacks from the Purge Troopers came from all directions; Star hadn't the time to strike at them. Her blades wildly changed directions, using the rebound from one block to counter another. This was not a fight she could win, but winning was never her intention. This was a fight for survival.
The roar of sublight engines overhead drew Star's attention, pulling her out of her trance. Knowing that she would become immediately vulnerable without the Force aiding her, Star leapt from the fray, propelling herself out of the purge troopers' circle and landing a few meters away, where she broke into a dead run. The Raventalon sailed toward her from the south, and she ran to meet it. The troopers, realizing what was happening, quickly pursued, but non-Force sensitives wearing bulky, heavy armor would never be able to chase down an unburdened Jedi.
When the Raventalon had nearly reached Star, Janna swung the ship around and momentarily engaged the autopilot while she painfully stood and reached up to grab the lever to lower the boarding ramp. Then she eased the ship toward the ground.
Star didn't wait for the ramp to fully extend, nor for the ship to land. Employing the assistance of the Force to propel her once again, she made the several story jump to alight upon the ramp, effectively escaping the purge troopers. She switched off her lightsabers as she made her way to the ramp control and commanded it back up.
Up in the cockpit, a flashing indicator alerted Janna that the ramp was retracting once again, and the pilot knew that her friend was on board. She turned the ship skyward and accelerated toward the heavens.
Star sank to the floor. Now out of danger, her resolve had crumbled.
And she wept.
A chime accompanied a flashing green indicator on the instrument panel of the Queen Moon's Revenge. PY-HD had programmed the stealth ship's scanner to search for the Raventalon's beacon.
"Is that them?" Rosado asked.
Tom, who had been napping slouched down in the pilot's chair, abruptly hopped to his feet. "Sure is!" He hurried to the exterior hatch, the astromech on his heels, and turned his eyes skyward just in time to see the nearly circular outline of a YV-560 freighter zoom across the strip of evening sky visible from the floor of Beggar's Canyon. PY-HD squealed with excitement.
"They made it!" Tom called as Rosado made his way toward him from the cockpit.
"Perfect timing!" Rosado said. "The suns are going down. It'll be a nice walk into town."
Once Tom had checked that Janna's DC-17 still had sufficient ammunition (one could never be too careful on Tatooine) the trio secured the ship and headed for Mos Espa. It was a fair walk, and the suns had all but disappeared below the horizon by the time they made it to the spaceport on the city's upper level.
The Raventalon had landed on the furthest reaches of the spaceport among a number of other smaller ships, leaving the main landing field for the much larger cargo ships and transports. All three were excited to reunite with the rest of their companions and celebrate the success of their mission.
"I'm expecting that Star will come charging down the ramp, running to give us a big hug," said Tom. PY-HD tweeted in agreement.
But as they drew nearer and nearer and no one appeared to greet them, they became a bit perplexed.
"Huh…where are they?" Tom wondered aloud.
"It is evening," Rosado pointed out. "They're probably in there cooking up something to eat. After all that excitement, I'm starved, and they probably are, too!"
"Yeah, you're probably right. My stomach's been growling for the last hour. Hope Marco made enough for us!"
They broke into a jog for the last two dozen meters, hurrying up the ramp. "Guys!" Tom called. "We did it!" He headed for the galley, but his nose did not detect the aroma of cooking food. "Guys? Janna? Star? Marco?"
The trio swung into the galley, where Janna and Star were seated at the table. The girls looked up at them, but they said nothing in greeting, did not smile, did not even appear happy to see them.
"There you guys are!" Tom said excitedly. He noticed their silence and solemn expressions. "Why do you guys look so upset? We should be celebrating! We just stole a ship from right under the Empire's nose and got away with-"
Tom felt a hand on his shoulder and cut himself off. It was Rosado, who suddenly appeared very nervous, his eyes wide and blank. After a fleeting second, the Demonicite realized why. He slowly faced the girls once more. "…Where's Marco?"
Two pairs of eyes turned down to the table. They remained silent.
"Guys?" Tom urged, now afraid to hear the answer. His voice cracked as his asked again, "Where's Marco?"
Star turned her whole body away from her friends in the doorway, arms crossed tightly across her chest as if she felt cold. Janna slowly rose from the table. Her gaze met Tom's, and their eyes locked. The Demonicite didn't even notice the fresh bandage wrapped around her knee as she limped toward him, stopping within arm's reach. Her eyes tightly closed as if speaking the words caused her intense pain, she slowly whispered.
"Marco…didn't make it…"
And for the first time in his memory, Tom saw a tear slide down Janna's cheek.
The Demonicite's mouth hung open, his trio of eyes wide and unblinking. His mind raced, unable to form a coherent thought. Beside him, PY-HD slumped forward, a low tone like a mournful whimper emitting from its vocabulator. Rosado leaned back against the bulkhead, feeling as though his legs would give out.
Tom's brain finally made sense of Janna's words. His jaw trembling, he stumbled through speech. "How…? How did it…?"
He gave up when Janna abruptly threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly as she broke down, making no attempt to hide her tears as she desperately clung to her partner. Tom hugged her back, feeling his own face becoming soaked with hot tears.
Rosado sank to the floor, his emotion leaving him unable to stand any longer, and closed his eyes. Once it had been his mission to track down and kill the two Jedi younglings; Now one was gone. He had grown quite fond of the four teenagers who's cause he had joined, but they had seemed un-killable, able to escape every danger they encountered. It was difficult to imagine that one of them was just…gone.
It was a long time before anyone regained their composure enough to open their eyes, and when Rosado finally did so, he found that the galley was slightly emptier than before.
"Uh…guys?"
Tom and Janna slowly broke their embrace and looked at him. PY-HD, who had been repeatedly smacking its dome against the bulkhead, spun around to face him, too.
Rosado pointed to the table. "Where's Star?"
And when the others looked, they were surprised to see that the young Padawan had vanished.
Star Butterfly trudged through the hard-packed sand of the outskirts of the spaceport, listening intently to the soft crunching of every footstep beneath her old Jedi boots.
Her boots…a memory of her old life in the Jedi Temple. They had come from a high-end maker of footwear on Coruscant, custom made to fit her feet. Marco had taken her to buy them. But that was a lifetime ago. Back before Order 66. Before they confessed their mutual love. Before they'd each lost a limb, and Marco an eye.
These boots had survived many foot chases and falls, been waterlogged several times, and yet they were still just as tough and as comfortable as when they were new.
The boots were a fragment of her old life. The footgear and her lightsaber were all she had left of that time. Both had survived so much.
And Marco…Marco had not.
The sand beneath Star's boots abruptly changed as she crossed the unmarked outer boundary of the spaceport. It was looser here, softer, that of untamed Tatooine desert. Her pace remained steady, unwavering. She had no route or destination in mind. Star just wanted to be alone.
The twin suns had dropped below the horizon, leaving an orange glow to illuminate the cooling desert floor. A gentle breeze rustled the skirt of her dress as Star climbed to the top of a dune. She looked out at the view beyond, vast and unbroken nothingness. If not for the occasional ship passing overhead on approach to Mos Espa spaceport, one would not even know that a city lay just over their shoulder.
Star slid down to the bottom of the dune and sat down in the sand. Here she truly felt alone, and she removed both lightsabers from her little purple bag. It had been quite a tight squeeze to get both inside. She stared at her own weapon, polished durasteel glinting a reflection of the dying light which burned the horizon. The bird-like wings sprouting from just below the emitter had become chipped and scratched.
A burst of rage flashed across her mind, and she considered throwing the lightsaber as hard as she could and allow it to be lost to the desert, to be swallowed up by the sand. But the anger passed, and she resisted the urge. She was not even sure what had sparked the anger, but she unceremoniously dropped her weapon to the ground beside her.
She turned her attention to the other lightsaber, turning it over slowly. Built by Kit Fisto, a Jedi whom she actually looked up to and greatly respected; passed on to Marco, her ever-loyal best friend whom she deeply loved, and who loved her back with all his heart.
Star had lost more than just the previous owners of this lightsaber, though. She had lost her parents, and Aunt, too, and she had no way of knowing what had become of Sir Lavabo or Buff Frog, though given the situation in which she had last seen General Bulgolyubov, she assumed he, too, was dead. So many people she cared for, gone. And losing Marco was simply more than her gentle heart could stand.
Star cried. Alone in the Tatooine desert, she wept openly, squeezing Marco's lightsaber in her hand until her knuckles turned white. Eventually, she slumped over into the sand. She was tired. Too tired to cry any more. She clutched the lightsaber tightly to her chest and closed her eyes, the gentle evening breeze drying the tears on her cheeks. The sand beneath her cooled as all traces of sunlight disappeared from the sky.
"Star!"
Star opened her eyes. Tom was calling her name.
"Star?!"
"Staaaaaar!"
So were Janna and Rosado.
Star quickly got to her feet and called her lightsaber back to her hand from where it had fallen.
"Star!" Her name echoed through the clear evening air. Star took a deep breath and steeled herself.
"Marco, I promise that your death will not be in vain," she whispered to the stars twinkling in desert sky. "I will finish this mission, and free Mewni from the Empire. But no one else is going to die for me."
"Staaaaarrr!"
The Padawan glanced over her shoulder toward the sound of her friends' voices, though she could not see them past the sand dune. "I will finish this alone."
And with that, Star Butterfly left Mos Espa spaceport behind her and disappeared into the desert.
Next: Act 3
