Though her body rested, her spirit endured. While corporations continued to follow their lies of serving the customers with heart, Lursa's flame continued to burn amidst the darkness, shining like a beacon for those who stand for freedom and innovation. Her flame became a symbol of hope in the void. Amidst the corporate greed and oppression, Lursa Maris became the rallying cry for those who dared to dream of a better future, and as long as her flame burned, Lursa Maris lit the way to a better world. Long live the flame!
Eva keeps her eyes locked on the holoprojector, displaying the content of the holocard she found at the former Rebel hide-out. The breeze blows through the alley and she feels her skirt waving in the wind. She shifts her eyes to the opposing wall and they land on a sentence, sprayed on the wall.
It was a machine that had the ability to push a starship to lightspeed…
The sentence cuts off, but she recognises it from the alley leading to the sewer entrance near the Capital Police Department. She found the same sentence there. The other half here is still to be found, but it confirms her suspicions. After Eva took the boy hostage and his father got murdered, Eva followed the Spy over the roof to this alley. When she ran through it to chase the Spy, her eyes glanced over the sentence, but she didn't have the chance to read it. Now she has, and Eva realises she ran past a crucial bit of information when she chased the Spy through the alley. She realises that this alley is where the trail starts, and it seems like one of the many trails since this is the second one she found. Though the sentence of the passage cuts off, Eva remembers where the next sentence is. When she chased the Spy over the road and stumbled into Ecklund at the sewer entrance nearby, which Eva suspected the Spy to have used to escape, the quiet girl pointed out a sentence. It was sprayed on the wall next to the sewer entrance, and it was the same sentence that was also at the other sewer entrance near the Capital Police Department. Eva bets she has to search there at the sewer entrance nearby if she wants to continue her search.
Eva walks out of the alley, onto the empty street. It's mostly abandoned since the street crosses a housing district for lower-income workers. All of them are at work, leaving the streets abandoned and largely safe for Eva to walk through them. With her stuffed backpack with her, Eva walks through the street and glancing over the tarmac, she barely recognises them. It was completely dark when she was here the last time, but the thing she does recognise is the path the Spy followed. As she walks on hastily, not wanting to stay in the open unnecessarily long, Eva's eyes land on an intersection, and she remembers the Spy turning right. With paranoia pounding in her chest, Eva turns right at the intersection and she quickly stumbles upon the sewer entrance, shut and locked. She remembers exactly where she hit Ecklund in the face with the butt of her blaster, and where she pointed out the sentence. Walking towards the sewer entrance, her eyes land on a sentence sprayed on the wall.
…and traverse the void below time and space, Eva reads.
It's the other half of the line, a small bit of the passage, and since Eva knows it's the sewer entrance the Spy escaped through, she feels convinced that the line is also part of the forbidden passage, the passage she found in the former Rebel hide-out. If it's hidden from the public eye, it could offer the Rebels an opportunity to hide their escape route. If no one knows how the waypoints look, no one will discover the path they form.
Since Peyton sliced into the city's sewage system, Eva can open this sewer entrance too, and as it screeches open and she walks away from the control panel built into the wall of an old apartment block, Eva is met with a dark, suffocating void.
Seeing the void, Eva feels her heart speeding up in her chest and she lets out a shivering sigh. She has done this before, but the shivers still run down her spine as she peers down, and with a pounding heart, Eva lowers herself and climbs down the ladder. Once more, and hopefully, for the last time, the claws of the void entangle her and she disappears into the dark.
Climbing down, she reaches the bottom and her boots pound on the metal floor of the service tunnel. Her hands tremble a little from the anxiety, but Eva notices it's less than the previous time. The dark feels less suffocating, but the difference isn't much. Eva raises her E-10 blaster and turns on its flashlight to light the way, and just like she expected, she finds the other sentences of the passage. She recognises each sentence, having followed them before until she almost evaporated in the blast at the warehouse. As Eva follows the sentences through the service tunnels, she hopes they won't lead her to the same fate she narrowingly dodged. Eva hasn't reached the extra part the forbidden version of the passage has, but she suspects to stumble upon it soon. After a bit of walking and turning around corners while shining her way through the dark, Eva stumbles upon a sentence she doesn't recognise. It's a sentence the previous trail didn't include, except for the forbidden version of Dead Hyperspace.
Shining her flashlight on the wall of the service tunnel, her eyes land on the letters.
''Though her body rested, her spirit endured,'' Eva whispers.
It's the first line of the extra part the old passage of Dead Hyperspace doesn't include. To her joy, Eva discovers she's following the right trail, formed by a version of Dead Hyperspace that is hidden from the public. Feeling excitement rushing through her, Eva continues and follows the trail, line by line as she turns into corners and lights the way ahead of her.
Eva follows the lines and ends up at an exit point. It's a tube going up with a ladder to climb up to the surface. She holds onto her blaster in her hand and holds onto the bars of the ladder in the other as she climbs up. At the top, she reaches a control panel and her eyes land on a sentence sprayed above the buttons.
''Lursa's flame continued to burn amidst the darkness,'' Eva whispers,
The trail still goes on. Remembering how she opened the sewer hatch last time, Eva pushes a button and the hatch goes open, screeching painfully. As the sewer exit opens, Eva is met with the dark clouds of the early evening, and she climbs up.
She puts her blaster on the edge of the exit first and Eva glances around. She sees warehouses, manufacturing halls, factories, containers, and a lot of grey concrete that form the sidewalks and roads. Though every corner of Vaulent Capital is a jungle of concrete, this corner of the city has concrete that feels different, and her nose prickles a little from the strong stench of pollution. All of that makes Eva instantly recognise the buildings surrounding her as those of the Luminex Sector, a lightly industrialised area, specialized in manufacturing goods for the Imperial citizens. The stench that prickles her nose comes from the smog that lies low above the ground.
Eva stands up and picks her blaster up from the ground, and she gazes around. The trail should continue here somewhere, and activating the holoprojector, she reads which line she has to find next.
Shining like a beacon for those who stand for freedom and innovation, she reads.
Eva recognises that innovation in the context of the Rebel Alliance means change, to change the galaxy to a better one, one they see as better. It's the idea that Eva disagrees with and despises, a galaxy with democracy and freedom. They have proven to be the ultimate weaknesses of the Old Republic that made it crumble.
She walks away from the sewer exit and onto the road and Eva puts her blaster away in her backpack. She then sees another sentence sprayed on the wall, and reading it, Eva sees it's the correct one.
Shining like a beacon for those who stand for freedom and innovation, she reads again.
The trail continues here.
Suddenly, further down the road ahead of her, Eva sees a black, floating object hovering in. Her heart instantly sinks in her chest as her eyes land on it. It's a circular drone with tentacles hanging down, and Eva recognises it as a Viper droid, a spy probe. Eva instantly jumps into an alley on her left and takes cover behind the wall. She couldn't see its insignia or designation digits. The distance is still too big for her to make out its details, but Eva knows it's a spy probe of the ISB. No other droid has tentacles that are this recognisable. In the silence that hangs over the empty road, Eva can hear its repulsorlift engines faintly whirring in the far distance, searching for her at places where the Civil Watch Alert doesn't reach. It's an extension of the ISB's security network, one that is on the move constantly. Eva pushes her back against the wall as she waits, peeks around the corner and moves back instantly. The sight of the metal squid with tentacles makes Eva's heart pound with nervousness. She rarely sees them, but when she does, she always feels the creeps as if the Viper probes come from the darkest abyss of Mustafar just like her, Mustafar's Angel of Death.
Slowly, she moves closer to the corner and she peeks around it again. Her eyes land on the thing with tentacles moving just out of sight, hovering into another road of an intersection. The area is clear, so Eva walks out of her cover and over the street again, but she quickens her pace. She fears that the Viper probe might move back and catch her with its red, glowing eye. She hastily walks on with her heart racing in her chest. Eva runs towards the intersection, and looking around the corner, she sees the Viper droid moving away from her, approaching a somewhat busy road further away. As Eva notices its red, glowing eye is turned away from her, she runs and crosses the intersection. As she runs onto the sidewalk on the other side, her eyes catch another line written on a dumpster as she enters an intersection.
Her flame became a symbol of hope in the void, she reads.
Eva follows its direction, and she then realises she's nearing the end. It's one of the last lines of the passage, and thus one of the last waypoints of the Rebel trail. She's nearing the Spy and his base of operations. The Rebel's main base is near, and Eva can almost taste it in the air, that's how close she is to the end of the passage. The adrenaline starts pumping and the courage and the excitement rush through her and Eva starts running through the roads, the streets and the alleys as her eyes dart around, from one line to the next and she speeds towards the end of the passage quicker and quicker.
''Amidst the corporate greed and oppression, Lursa Maris became the rallying cry,'' she whispers, her heart pounding as she runs.
Her silent, moving lips when she reads them speed up and she steadily reads the lines out loud, louder and louder.
''For those who dared to dream of a better future,'' she reads out loud, gasping for air.
Eva runs into an alley enclaved between two vacant office buildings. Her eyes dart around and land on the next waypoint of the trail, sprayed on the wall.
''And as long as her flame burned,'' says Eva, ''Lursa Maris lit the way to a better world.''
Eva runs onto a loading area. Gasping for air and her heart pounding in her chest, her eyes dart around, searching desperately for the last line of the passage, the last road sign of the trail. The finish line has to be somewhere, but Eva can't find it. She looks desperately around as she runs over the tarmac of the loading area, passing containers on flatbeds, and suddenly, her eyes land on it, sprayed on the wall of an out-of-use manufacturing facility behind the row of flatbeds, and Eva lets out a sigh of relief.
''Long live the flame,'' says Eva, her voice shivering with adrenaline and anticipation. ''Long live the Rebellion.''
She has reached it. The ending line of the passage, the end of the trail, and thus, the Rebel hide-out, the Spy's main base of operations. This is where he should reside, this manufacturing building. Eva glances around and notices the building is maintained well but doesn't seem to be in use. It doesn't seem to be abandoned like the warehouse at the Steergard Naval Yard before it blew up. That building had heavily weathered walls and its roof was overgrown with vegetation that slowly managed to settle. To Eva, the building doesn't seem abandoned, but rather vacant, waiting for the next tenant to sign the contract and move in, but if her suspicions are right and the trail has led her correctly, it's already occupied. The Spy must be hiding here, planning his attacks against the Empire and her people. This is his stronghold.
As Eva glances around, her eyes land on an alley that splits two concrete buildings. It leads to some concrete backyard in the back of the factory buildings, but what matters is that it ends at the unloading area of the Spy's stronghold, the manufacturing building he moved into. Eva figures the alley provides good coverage to switch clothing and prepare for raiding the Rebel stronghold. She runs into the alley, her boots pounding on the tarmac, and she puts down her backpack on the ground and starts pulling off her school uniform until she's almost nude. The drops of sweat that has formed on her skin because of the running makes her feel cold, and the weather doesn't help. The breeze picks up a little, blowing through the alley in waves, and with each gust of wind that blows into her, she shivers from the cold. Quickly, Eva puts on her Academy training suit, wrinkled by the tight backpack it was stuffed in without much care, and she puts her helmet on her head and prepares herself mentally to raid the Rebel stronghold. Remembering how intense it was at the Rebel hide-out in the middle of downtown Capital gives her an indication of what she could expect in the Rebel stronghold. Dozens of Rebel scum, thermal detonators bringing down the ceiling, fear, and anxiety. Thinking back, Eva feels her heart pounding relentlessly in her chest and to calm it down, she makes her chest bigger and takes deep breaths, ventilating her lungs with cold, fresh air to cool the nerves. She stretches her arms and her legs, waking them up to prepare for the blaster bolts shrieking towards her. Eva knows that such a hit will be far more dangerous than before. The Academy suit she's wearing is no durasteel armour she wore at the Rebel hide-out in downtown Capital. Her suit is simply made of threads of natural fibres, not Stormtrooper armour. A hit will inflict much more damage than before, but her training suit is better than the school uniform she borrowed from Oliva. At least it gives her a bit of protection and agility.
Remembering her best friend, Eva knows she can't go in without contacting her first. Even when the ISB or even the Spy watches her comm channels, she can't allow herself to go in without telling Oliva. And if she dies, she won't be able to say goodbye to her. The main base is probably filled with Rebels. This raid will be more dangerous than the previous one since she has no squad members to cover her back at all. She's completely alone and the risk of never seeing daylight ever again is big. The risk of capture or death is now at its highest, and Eva fears that more than whatever the ISB will do to her. The ISB is her people but the Rebels that reside within this manufacturing building are not. They are the monsters that changed her life. They killed her parents and wounded Eline so badly that she still hasn't woken up yet after a hundred days. Eva knows they are horrible enough to chain her up.
Eva taps on her wristlink and moves it towards her chin. She hears the breeze whistling through the alley as she leans with her back against the wall, constantly taking deep breaths to calm her aching heart. Her wristlink then lets out a faint beep and a male, robotic voice speaks through the speakers.
''The person you are trying to call does not seem to be available. Please, try again later.''
Just pick the damn phone up.
Eva taps her wristlink again. She doesn't go in without letting Oliva know first, and then, the girl's voice crackles through the speakers.
''Eva?''
Amidst the adrenaline she tries to suppress, a wave of joy and relief washes over her as Eva hears the voice of her best friend crackling through her wristlink.
''Yeah, it's me,'' Eva replies. ''I'm so happy to hear you again.''
''I'm happy to hear yours again too,'' says Oliva. ''So I know you're still alive.''
Eva chuckles. ''I could very well have died today,'' she responds. ''I mean, I should've died twice today but-, I guess the New Order has different plans with me.''
Oliva chuckles from the other side of the line.
''Before I go in, I want you to know that you're the best friend I've ever had,'' says Eva, and she starts to become a little emotional, feeling her eyes water, and she swallows. ''You've helped me so much with this search and I feel so grateful. I could've never asked for a better friend. Thank you so much.''
Eva struggles to hold in the tears, feeling so damn grateful for Oliva's help. She can hear Oliva sobbing a little, starting to understand the risk Eva is going to take. It slowly starts to sink in that these might be the last sentences they'll exchange between each other. This call might be the last time Oliva will ever hear of her best friend, and Eva hears it strike her heart.
''Eva, I-, I'd do everything for you,'' Oliva stammers, her voice cracking. ''You're my best friend too and I love you, and never have I doubted you. You're brave and smart, and they'll have a hard time fighting you.''
For a moment, Oliva chuckles, and Eva smiles, feeling her heart warm up with her friend's kind compliments.
''Eva, Good luck.''
''Thanks. Love you too, Oliva. I'm signing off, so-, goodbye.''
As she says goodbye, Eva realises more how dangerous this raid is after hearing Oliva's voice. It could be the last, kind and soft voice she could ever hear. She could lose her life, or in the least worst case, she could be captured. She would be imprisoned without any tools to escape out of a tiny jail block, and though Eva is confident about her capabilities, she knows they lack. This is not just raiding a concrete block with half of the garrison and the Rebel father's home. If her assumption is correct, this is the main base of operations, one the Rebels use to coordinate their activity on the Imperial moon. This building amidst the manufacturing buildings of the Luminex Sector is the Yavin 4 of the moon. It's just not a casual Rebel hide-out, and Eva knows the danger is real. It's far more dangerous than the Rebel hide-out in the middle of downtown Capital or anything else. The chance of getting killed or captured is real, and if she gets captured, they take away her blaster, her backpack, her wristlink, every possession she'd have, and Eva would have no chance of escape. She'll have no chance of escape from the tiny jail block she imagines, and Eva realises she'd have to contact the Academy, her friends of the squad, to free her. The ISB probably discovered Peyton and Ashara too briefly after they unleashed the Civil Watch Alert onto the HoloNet. She'd have to call those who hunt her for horrible deeds, but if she gets captured, Eva would have no other option than to find a way to contact them. They'd be able to triangulate her position and the ISB will raid the hide-out and free her from the tiny jailblock. However, the Rebels would take away her wristlink when she gets captured. She'd have no way of communicating. She'd have to smuggle it into the prison block in some way without her Rebel captors noticing it, but how?
Eva gazes down at the ground, unable to think of a way to smuggle in her wristlist. It's so big they'd easily see it when she smuggles it below her suit. Her eyes then land on her utility belt with her C-1 Comlink attached to it, partially blocked out by her chest, and a thought suddenly arises. Are they such creeps that they'd inspect my bare chest? Hope not?
She figures the Rebel scumbags have some manners adults should have, and though Eva doubts it since she sees all Rebel traitors as immoral scum, it's a bet she has to take. So, she pulls up the suit's collar and puts her C-1 Comlink on her chest between her breasts. Puberty hasn't been running at full speed yet, but Eva can still feel the cold cylindrical object enclosed between them, and letting go of the collar, it sits tightly and unable to drop. No way they'd do what every creep in a dark alley would do to me, right?
Eva continues her mission and taps on her helmet and closes the visor and squeezes the grip of her blaster. The adrenaline rushes through her and the nervousness pounds in her chest as Eva walks out of the alley towards the Rebel's main base of operations. She sees a metal door with dumpsters next to it and Eva approaches it and aims her blaster at the electronic lock. She fires and a screech echoes through the air as the lock of the door spits out sparks and malfunctions, and the door screeches, going open and giving Eva access to the building. Her heart pounds with nervousness and excitement as she steps through the opened door and into a corridor. Unlike the former Rebel hide-out, the hallway of this building is well-lit, even when the building looks vacant from the outside. It gives her hope that she'll find the Spy here.
As Eva closes the door behind her from the inside, she continues to walk through the corridor, walking on the tips of her toes. She tries to walk as quietly as possible through the corridor and raises her blaster, prepared to pull the trigger on anyone who emerges into the corridor. As she walks through the corridor, the silence that hangs here feels suffocating. All she can hear are the overhead fluorescent lights buzzing and the ventilation inlets in the ceiling faintly humming. She goes on with her heart racing in her chest without a handbrake.
Then, Eva's heart sinks in her chest as she hears something at the end of the corridor. She stops in her tracks and focuses on the sound. She recognises the sound as two voices talking to each other and they grow louder. Blast it, somebody's coming.
Eva glances around, searching for something to hide behind. She can't be seen, and as Eva hears footsteps growing louder amidst the voices, she sees a shut blast door in the corner of her eye. She jumps towards it and hides in the doorway of the shut blast door. The wall barely covers her body and she holds her blaster tightly to her chest. Her fingers start tapping on her blaster as the two voices grow loud enough for Eva to hear what they're saying, and with a focused ear, she listens carefully.
''So they want us to pull back?''
Amidst their words, Eva hears the faint thuds of her fingers tapping nervously on her blaster. She fears her nervousness might betray her position, so she takes deep, silent breaths, trying to calm herself down while she focuses on what they say.
''Yeah, back to the fleet. The captain fears the ISB is closing in on us.''
The fleet?
She wants to know more about what they're talking about, but they subside quickly and the voices disappear, having walked away. The silence falls again and amidst it, Eva knows what fleet they're talking about. The Rebel Alliance has no homeworld, all they have is a fleet, the Rebel fleet, and Eva knows that's what the two voices were talking about. It confirms that Rebels reside here and that their commanding officer is the captain, who the Rebel Twi'lek confirmed is the rank the Spy holds. However, it doesn't tell her whether he's here, so Eva steps away from her cover and walks on. Her fingers still tap on the blaster as she raises it, and though she can hear their thuds, Eva starts ignoring them. The nervousness is simply too intense to calm down, so she focuses more on the mission instead of herself. Approaching the end of the corridor, the two voices suddenly grow louder and Eva stops in her tracks. Blast it, they're coming back!
But before she looks for cover, Eva notices the two voices don't grow louder. The Rebels must have stopped walking and now stand still in the corridor around the corner. The two voices must have stopped in their tracks, so Eva keeps standing in the corridor and moves towards the right wall, pushing her back against it.
''So what now? Will tomorrow continue?''
''Yes, the bombs have already been planted at the Galactic Stock Exchange and the surrounding buildings''
Oh shit?
''Tomorrow, we're gone and the towers will be levelled to the ground.''
A shiver runs down her spine. What Eva hears shocks her. The Galactic Stock Exchange is one of the pillars that keep the economic powers of Vaulent 6 upright. Its colossal tower and the towers surrounding it all comprise half of the Capital's financial district and a quarter of the entire skyline. Eva realises they'll be bombing the financial district tomorrow, and though she doesn't know the time, she's sure that it will lead to hundreds of casualties. This way, they'll take down the economy of Vaulent 6 and weaken it. They want to take the Empire down. Eva feels the urge to stop them, and she knows it can be done by catching the Spy. He's the mastermind. If he's brought to his knees, so will the rest of his Rebel colleagues. She has to stop them. Eva can't let hundreds of office workers die in a terrorist attack she can prevent.
The voices subside as Eva hears their footsteps walking away from her, and the silence falls. It's clear.
Eva walks into the intersection and gazes in the direction where the voices disappear, and with her blaster raised, she walks on, on the tips of her toes. She walks in the direction where the voices went, and walking towards the end of the corridor, Eva notices she has ended up at a catwalk. It encircles a large, circular chamber with a floor below her, and a dome as the roof. On the other side of the chamber where the catwalk ends is another door and Eva sees the shadows of two persons disappear through it. That's where they go.
As the two Rebels have vanished, Eva glances around and is intrigued by what this massive chamber serves. She slowly walks towards the fence of the catwalk and looks down. There's a metal table with a blaster carbine and other black objects, orderly placed with precision on the table. A mastermind like the Spy would exactly do that.
Curiosity overtakes her. Eva wants to make sure it's the equipment of the Spy, and if it is, it means the Rebel mastermind is at home. The stuff lying on the table could confirm whether he's home. She notices there's a ladder going down to the floor of the chamber. She approaches it and drops herself to the floor of the catwalk. With her blaster in her right hand and her other hand clinging onto the ladder, Eva climbs down. Her boots thud on the iron rods as she quietly climbs down and reaches the ground. Holding her blaster in two hands again, Eva quickly gazes around. She follows what she learned at the SimArena and scans the room for enemies, entrances and other suspicious objects like thermal detonators and cameras. There are some entrances but they are clear, and the walls are deprived of cameras that could betray her presence. The Rebels don't seem to be active around here, so Eva shifts her attention to the metal table. With her heart pounding in her chest, Eva approaches it and sees it's the same blaster carbine the Spy used when he shot the Rebel officer in front of his son, but what catches her attention is the helmet lying next to it. It's black, darker than darkness. Eva walks around the table and bends over it towards the helmet, and she recognises it. She recognises the T-shaped, green visor on the front and the brow ridge above it. The brow ridge extends across the helmet's width, the cheek guards bend gently outward, and the small fin on top of the helmet runs from the front to the back. Seeing the helmet from up close, Eva recognises the helmet itself. She recognises it from military antique street vendors that tried to sell their stuff on the Steel Crane Plaza at the market, the same market Oliva sells her corn once in a while. Few of those antique sellers had helmets like these for sale, and interested in what they were, Eva commonly asked what they were. The vendors told her stories about Clonetroopers, the early soldiers of the Empire that fought during the Clone Wars. Helmets like this one were worn by those Clones and fought in the most daring battles of the war. She's never seen a Clonetrooper wearing it since they have been outphased nearly an era ago, having been replaced by the modern Stormtroopers, but Eva still recognises their helmets from the few times she visited the market and stumbled upon those antique sellers. Now, Eva suddenly realises the Rebel Spy is a Clonetrooper, a veteran of the Clone Wars and the outphasing program. She's dealing with a true war veteran which explains his genius. It explains why he's the mastermind. Even though the realisation hits her, disbelief strikes her. She can't yet fully comprehend that the Spy she's been searching for is a Clone, and knowing they haven't been seen throughout the galaxy for over 20 years, Eva can't believe the Spy is an old man in his retirement age. Did a 60-year-old really beat me up? I'm not sure if I should buy that. Maybe the Spy got it from a Clonetrooper? Must be.
Disbelieved and her jaws nearly wide open, Eva taps on her helmet and opens her visor. She wants to see the helmet directly with her eyes to believe it. Her eyes are locked on the green visor, remembering it from so many places where she encountered the Spy, and she reaches out and grabs the helmet quietly from the table. She keeps holding onto her blaster in her hand and holds the helmet in her other hand and rotates it slowly. Her eyes dart all over the helmet with intrigue. This truly is a Clone helmet. Wow.
Suddenly, Eva hears a click, echoing through the chamber. Her heart sinks in her chest because she recognises the sound. She recognises it from the BlasTech facility. It's the infamous sound of a blaster cycling from safe- to firing mode. Eva feels the sweat forming, her hands starting to tremble as she drops the helmet on the table. It pounds on the metal as the memories of the BlasTech facility flash before her eyes. As she saw her father gesturing that she could go, Eva's foot got stuck in a tie wrap that held the crates together. She tripped, fell and hit her chin on the floor. She heard the click and knew it was a blaster aimed at her, and when she stood up, turned around and held her hands in the air, she saw the Spy holding the blaster, aiming it at her. Eva's heart pounds heavily in her chest as if it's in her throat. More than a hundred days later, she experiences it again, that single moment at the BlasTech facility, but now at the Rebel's main base of operations. It's happening again.
Anticipating a blaster is aimed at her, Eva slowly drops her E-10 blaster. It thuds on the ground as Eva wonders what the face of the Spy looks like. She knows it's him. Any other Rebel would've shot her down immediately or screamed at her to drop to her knees. This one doesn't. This Rebel is completely silent, and though it doesn't indicate much, Eva has a gut feeling it's the Spy. Since his helmet lies on the table, she gets to see his face. The Spy's identity will be revealed to her and she feels nervous to see his face, but she wants to see it. She has to see him. It was her mission to catch him. She cast her pain into this mould. Eva ran for this, went AWOL for this, fought for this, and now she has reached it, the moment she fought to. Even if she gets killed or captured, she has to see the face of the Spy. She just has to.
Eva's heart pounds relentlessly as she slowly turns around. She almost doesn't dare turn around, but she wants to see his face so badly. Her hands tremble as Eva slowly turns around, and then, her heart freezes. The world shatters as shock and utter disbelief break her frozen heart. Her eyes widen as they land on the face of the Spy.
Her body freezes as the blaster pistol that is pointed at her face is held by the one person she never, ever in her entire life, expected to hold it. The person who holds her at gunpoint is no other than the person who offered her a bed after the Rebel airstrike and taught her literature at school. It's Lu, the mother of her very best friend. It's Lu, the mother of Oliva, who is the Rebel Spy. Never did Eva ever expect to see her face under the Clone helmet. Her mind has completely shattered, unable to believe it's Lu who is responsible for all the trouble, all the drama and the pain that brought her nearly down. Eva is nailed to the ground, her eyes locked on Lu as she still can't comprehend it, unable to process the fact that Lu has been her biggest enemy all along.
Lu holds her blaster pistol very still, her eyes coldly sharp and her breathing completely unnoticeable while Eva starts gasping for air, reality slowly starting to grip her.
''L-, Lu?'' Eva stammers, her hands trembling.
Her voice shivers and cracks with disbelief, her heart cracking as the tears start forming in her eyes.
''It's-, it's you?'' she stammers.
Eva can faintly hear Lu's cold breathing. Her eyes are locked on her as if a ghost has possessed her, a demon, a Rebel demon, looking at her through her brown eyes.
Lu raises her eyebrows, seemingly unsurprised.
''The Spy?'' she asks, her cold voice showing no shiver at all. ''I've always been 'him'. Ever since the previous war.''
Suddenly, Eva's world collapses and her heart shatters. Hearing the voice of Lu, the voice of a trusted person she's known for years, makes Eva collapse to her knees. The tears blur her eyesight as the utter shock that has shaken her brings her to her knees. Hearing her calm voice confirms to Eva that Lu is not possessed. She's not holding her at gunpoint against her will. It's her, it's truly her. It's the real Lu, the real mother of Oliva who has betrayed the Empire and holds the blaster pistol in her hand.
A demon doesn't look through her eyes, Lu is the demon.
Eva prepared for the worst, but she was never able to prepare herself for this. Lu was the Spy all along, a teacher and mother of her best friend. It was she who held her at gunpoint at the BlasTech facility when she visited it with her father, and she was there at the Rebel hide-out to gun her and Peyton down, at the Academy to kill the Admiral and hijack the walker to escape, and at the Rebel officer's home to kill him in front of his son Eva held hostage. Her heart shatters in a thousand pieces as Eva slowly starts to comprehend it, and on her knees, she lets out her tears, crying on the ground. She breathes shiveringly and her eyes ache.
Lu slowly lowers her blaster pistol and gazes at Eva, sobbing, dropped to her knees.
Eva tries to speak, but her throat feels sore. ''I-, I-,'' but she's unable to continue, the deep sorrow and shock suffocating her, squeezing her lungs with a heavy weight.
''Can't yet believe it?'' Lu asks, her cold voice piercing her cries.
Eva feels her eyes ache from the tears, but she can hear through her sobs the care in Lu's voice and shifting her eyes up, she nods. Her body shivers with sorrow and pain as Eva shifts her eyes down to the ground, her tears splashing on the concrete as she lays her hands on the ground.
Lu lets out a faint, cold sigh.
''You've known from the start that I despise the Empire's conscription program. You knew that all the time, but you failed to realise that it goes deeper than that,'' says Lu, and she starts walking in half a circle around Eva, her eyes locked on the sobbing girl. ''My idea of a true, peaceful galaxy is when its citizens are free to choose its government and direction without indoctrination through censorship or propaganda. It's the citizens that have the power to lead through politics, not a few hundred High Command officers and a distant Emperor and the Dark Lord of the Sith leading through military power. The Empire is an evil dictatorship, spreading like a disease, that longs for authority, power and expansion, no matter how much their citizens suffer in the process.''
In the corner of her eye, Eva tracks Lu as she walks around her in half a circle. Sobbing with her knees on the ground, Eva can't get the power to stand up. Her arms and legs are still free to move, but she can't get herself to fight. The sorrow and pain that the Spy is Lu has shattered her.
''Security and stability achieved through violence, oppression, and military rule, is not peace,'' says Lu, turning around and walking back. ''It's a hallucination of Imperials who think it is. It's a hallucination they try to believe in so much that they're convinced it's reality. They believe in their common hallucination because they're afraid that they'll lose their power to control the galaxy. So, they oppress and spy on their own people.''
Lu then stops where she began, and she gazes at Eva, still sobbing as she sits with her knees on the ground.
''A government that spies on its own people enforces the will of a single man through violence, and limits our media. That's not a government that's convinced it will live for thousands of years like the Republic. That's not power Imperials like you believe in. It's fear.''
Hearing Lu's Rebel propaganda makes Eva feel like she has to throw up. She feels sick in her stomach, not just from the Rebel propaganda but because the words are spoken by Lu herself. The pain and the sorrow she feels break her bones.
''Power is convinced it will exist. When it panics, it fears it won't,'' says Lu, and she steps towards Eva. ''Your evil Empire, the government you've sworn your allegiance to, cracks. It fears it will lose, and their solution to prevent it is to go further with what is bringing them down in the first place, security and stability through oppression and terrorism and the abolishment of freedom and democracy.''
Eva keeps her eyes on the ground. They ache and burn, and suddenly, she feels the cold hand of Lu pushing her chin up. With teary eyes, Eva looks at her former teacher as she feels the cold glove of Lu on her chin, and she feels her tears streaming down her cheeks, feeling completely powerless.
''The Rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic will revert the galaxy back in time, when it was at its most peaceful, before the dark times, before the Empire and its tyranny,'' says Lu.
Before the dark times, before the Empire and its tyranny and bring back freedom and democracy.
Eva can't believe it's the words of Lu, not just any other Rebel lunatic. Hearing the words freedom and democracy coming out of her mouth shocks her, and deep within her, Eva feels the anger rising. Her deep sorrow is oppressed by rage. As she gazes at Lu, Eva's eyes sharpen like vibroblades as her fury starts burning within her, its flames starting to entangle her. Her rage at Lu starts consuming her. Her lips tighten and her teeth clench. A tight, almost thin smile forms on her face as her inner turmoil reaches its point of evaporation. The violent rage boils within Eva and it threatens to break her down.
''I-, I will kill you!'' Eva hisses. ''You and your Rebels, I'll kill you all right here!''
Lu shakes her head and lets out a sigh. The concern for the girl is reflected in her eyes, but Eva sees the Rebel flame too. The rage boils within her as she sees the flame burning brightly in the eyes of her former literature teacher.
''My dear Eva, even when you disliked my literature classes, I liked you as a student,'' says Lu. ''I'm so concerned about you, you've truly lost yourself as a child.''
Eva's eyes are narrowed as her fury takes her over and spits out its vengeful flames.
''Look who caused it!'' Eva hisses.
Lu and her Rebel friends were the ones who changed her life completely, changing her from an innocent girl with ambitions to an orphan, cold-blooded Rebel killer with almost nothing to lose, having to fight for a sister, having become the Angel of Death found in folklore of Mustafar.
Eva feels Lu's cold eyes gazing at the fury in her soul, penetrating her eyes fiercely.
''Eva, never have I felt good about what happened to you,'' says Lu. ''I'm sorry for your parents and your sister.''
Eva scoffs. Even when she says she's sorry, Eva knows Lu has no heart anymore. She might have one, but it's broken with treason, covered up with Rebel lies she doesn't buy into.
''No-, no you're not,'' Eva hisses. ''You're just like all the other Rebel scum. Heartless, immoral, treacherous murderers from the deepest pits of hell where you belong to burn.''
Lu viciously lets go of Eva's chin as if she's handling a misbehaving hound, and she walks away from her.
''Creating people like you, orphan teenagers, is a heavy cost we have to pay,'' says Lu stepping away with her back turned to the girl, ''but war brings sacrifices, and as long as they lead to a world where the sun shines brighter than ever, we're willing to pay with human sacrifices and civilian casualties. War never takes civilian lives into account, even when one or both sides decide to spare them.''
Looking at Lu's back, Eva feels the violent rage burning within her. It gives her the spirit, the spirit of Mustafar's Angel of Death, to kill Lu right here. Eva doesn't care if it's the mother of her best friend. She wants to kill her so, so much. She longs for her blood seeping out of her dead body. Her eyes ache as the tears continue to drop on the floor, her vengeful fury burning violently within her. As Lu has turned her back to her, Eva notices in the corner of her eye her E-10 lying next to her on the ground, the blaster she dropped. She clenches her fists as she shifts her eyes, feeling the urge to pick it up and pull the trigger. She can't stand Lu anymore. She trusted her, accepted the bed she offered, and ate the breakfast she prepared for her. Suddenly, she sees a small figure peeking out of a doorway. Eva looks up and sees a familiar face she hasn't seen in decades. It's the one person that has always been driving her to the top of the Academy, Eline. The blond strands of her hair hang down, and her blue eyes stare at her. Though she's a hallucination of her mind, Eva can see that Eline is here, and she feels sorrow through her burning rage, missing her younger sister so much. From the middle of the doorway, Eline's eyes shift to Eva's blaster lying on the ground and then she looks back at her older sister. Eline seems to feel how deeply Lu stabbed the dagger in Eva's shattered heart, and she nods, agreeing with what her older sister is thinking.
Eva shifts her eyes back to Lu. She can't let her walk alive anymore. The hallucination of Eline and her hospitalisation is what Lu caused. The pain and the sorrow can all be traced back to Lu. Eva can't let her live. Lu has to be killed and die on her hands.
Eva instantly reaches out for her blaster, picks it up from the ground, and stands up. Her heart pounds with vengeful rage, wanting blood to spill. She aims her blaster at Lu, feeling the rage rush through her as she moves her fingers to the trigger.
Then, before her blaster can screech, the ground shakes and Eva is pulled viciously out of her rage. Eva almost falls over and shifts her head to her left and sees a tall, orange droid has jumped down from the catwalk above her. Its joints squeak as it rises from its bent knees, and Eva instantly recognises it as the cargo droid Oliva uses when they unload the crops of her father at the Steel Crane Market, his designation digits being CK-3. To her shock, Oliva's droid, whom she patted on its shoulder when Eva recognises him, is involved in the treacherous acts of Lu too. Seeing it rise from its knees, Eva feels a shiver running down her spine, seeing how tall the droid is. Before she can move her blaster, the droid lashes out to her. CK-3 slams its metal fist against her arm and Eva screams. Her blaster flies out of her hand and it feels like it burns from the droid's punch. Eva steps back with fear, her vengeful fury within her shivering. She knows she can't take CK-3 alone or without any blaster. The droid then lashes out and slams Eva in her chest with its fist. Eva flies backwards by its immense force and screams and crashes into a concrete pillar. She hits the back of her head against it and falls down to the ground. Her back aches from the crash and her chest burns from the droid's slam. Her head hurts and she feels dizzy, and while the world feels like it's spinning, the droid steps towards her and Lu turns around. Her eyes betray her expectations. Eva sees she expected her to do it. She knows Lu has been with her the whole time and got to see what she has become at the Academy. She knew she was going to pull the trigger.
Its orange plating reflects the white fluorescent lights as CK-3 approaches her. Its pounding steps echo within the chamber and Eva feels her heart pounding with fear. She tries to stand up but her chest and her back ache too much. It feels like they burn in agony and Eva grits her teeth with pain. The droid steps towards her and stops right in front of her, and as Eva gazes up, wondering what Lu ordered him to do, the droid reaches out to Eva's chin and pulls her up from the ground. Its metal hand enclaves her throat and pulls her up as if Eva is a ragdoll. The droid's cold fingers burn in her throat as Eva is left completely powerless, unable to fight back as the droid tightens its grip around her neck. She lets out a shivering scream as the droid's fingers burn in her throat. CK-3 lifts her further up and slams her back against the concrete pillar. She feels the cold pillar in her back as the droid squeezes her throat. With fear in her eyes, the droid holds her in the air and her feet dangle down. CK-3 strangles her as Eva slams her hand on its metal hand and tries to pull away its fingers, but she can't. The droid is far too powerful for her. She can't fight its Automaton's block power cells and hydraulic pressure pumps. Eva is completely helpless, unable to free herself, and the fury that once burned within her slowly hides in fear in her soul.
In the corner of her eye, she sees Eline still standing in the doorway with her hand covering her mouth and her eyes wide open, startled at the droid with shock.
While the droid strangles her and Eva's tears splash on the droid's metal hand, Lu steps towards her. While the droid's fingers burn in her throat, Eva wonders what made Lu betray the Empire in the first place. Though she is nearly suffocated, the question that has arisen makes her wonder enough to use her little oxygen to speak.
''W-, why did you do this?'' Eva asks, her voice cracking with the little oxygen she can breathe in.
Lu steps towards her.
''Remember the story about my father I told you?'' Lu asks.
Her throat aches as Eva tries to recollect the story, but the pain, sorrow and shock make her unable to. All she can remember is that Lu's father was a combatant in the Clone Wars, but that's where the details seem to become nonexistent. The droid continues to strangle her and she almost loses control over her body. Her throat aches and her eyes become heavy. They slowly shift down until they land on Lu's outfit. She sees she's wearing the black armor she also wore when Eva encountered her, not knowing it was Lu. Suddenly, it all clicks. Her mind suddenly makes sense of it. That armor is not just any armor, it's Clonetrooper armor from before the era of the Stormtroopers, and coupled with the helmet, Eva suddenly realises Lu didn't get the Clonetrooper armour because she found it. It's the armor of her father, and suddenly, it makes sense.
''Your-, your father was-, was a Clonetrooper,'' Eva stammers, her voice cracking.
Lu nods and starts to repeat the story she told Eva a long time ago when she still attended school and refused to do her literature homework. ''My father was a combatant in the Clone Wars. He was indeed a Clonetrooper, one of the millions that were bred in serial production like TIE Fighters rolling out of Corellia. My father was bred for war, but he wasn't bred for the atrocities he would later see when he got pinned down during a siege on a Separatist-occupied city. He and his men were mowed down, and though he was congratulated for surviving the horror, the Empire thought differently later on after the Republic fell.''
Suddenly, Lu's tone from calmness and coldness changed, and through the inner and physical pain, Eva hears the anger that starts to rise in her voice.
''My father survived the Clone Wars and fought even after the horror he saw during the siege,'' Lu starts hissing with anger, ''but the Empire he later began to serve shoved him aside.''
The anger, the rage, starts boiling within the woman as her eyes narrow. Her coldness disappears and instead, the burning anger radiates heat, while Eva gazes at her with the metal hand of CK-3 still enclaving her throat.
''My father fought until the last drop of blood. He fought for everyone in the galaxy, from the First Battle of Geonosis to the Umbara Campaign, but the Empire didn't fight for him,'' Lu hisses, and she turns away from Eva. ''He was given cannon fodder missions, and had to work with superiors who ordered him to go straight to hell. He was given no future, no promises, nothing. He was no longer necessary, no longer usable. He was no longer seen as a war veteran or a human being. THE EMPIRE TREATED HIM LIKE PROPERTY, USED, OBSOLETE EQUIPMENT!''
Suddenly, Lu throws her blaster pistol viciously on the ground with an enraged scream. The pistol clatters on the ground into oblivion as Lu stares at it with rage boiling within her. She then turns around and Eva sees the anger in her eyes and the flame that drives it, the flame of the Rebellion.
''He was treated worse than a piece of steel!'' Lu screams, her voice shaking with anger. ''He was soon replaced by the Stormtrooper Initiative and was thrown onto the street of Coruscant. He had nothing to live with. All of his friends died in cannon fodder missions or disappeared or were taken care of. All he had was his obsolete blaster carbine and his torn-down armor. He found a woman, married her, and so I was born, but even when he found a shimmer of light in the last years of his life, the scars of the war and how your Empire treated him like used equipment remained with him. He died when I was eight, and since then, I have given myself a mission. I took his armor and his blaster, and now I fight for my father, against an Empire that mistreated him like weathered steel. I wanted to fight for a galaxy he fought for but couldn't live in before the idea of 'better' was changed.''
Eva swallows heavily. Swallowing hurts so much that the tears continue to stream down her cheeks, but through this pain, she starts understanding Lu's motive. A father who was no longer seen as a soldier was swiftly put aside, wiped from existence as if he and his Clonetrooper colleagues had no right to exist in the first place. However, Eva has difficulties dissecting it further as the droid suddenly tightens its grip and enclaves her throat as if its artificial life depends on it. Her throat is squeezed in and Eva lets out a scream of panic. She flounders her leg like a fish on dry land and enclaves her hand around the fingers of the droid, trying desperately to free herself from the agonizing pain, but it's too much and the oxygen is no longer able to reach her.
Lu steps towards Eva with watery eyes, the flame of rage crackling and scorching within her.
''The Empire will pay for what they have done to my father and all the other Clonetroopers in the galaxy,'' says Lu, and she tilts her head. ''You just happened to stumble into the crossfire.''
Eva gazes with pain in her eyes as Lu stops next to CK-3. The droid is nearly two heads taller than her as Lu looks up at CK-3 while Eva loses control over her body. The tears keep streaming down, her hands tremble and her legs continue to flounder. The droid keeps its metal hand enclaved around Eva's throat as it keeps her pinned against the concrete pillar. Eva wonders what will happen next, but she is sure it will be a blaster at her forehead. Through the agonizing pain in her throat, Eva feels convinced that Lu will not keep her alive, at least not for long, and she starts fearing it will be her end. She'll die, and she's sure of it, and her mind trembles with panic, knowing it will be her end, but before the memories could flash before her eyes, a Rebel soldier enters the chamber through the doorway in which she saw Eline standing. She disappeared, pushed away by the Rebel scum that walked in. Eva darts her eyes to him and sees urgency in his eyes as he stops in his tracks in the middle of the doorway.
''Sir, our scouts report a doubling in probe droids and intensified security in this sector,'' he says, his voice echoing through the chamber.
Lu breaks her cold stare at Eva and shifts her head to the Rebel soldier.
''Got it, lieutenant,'' Lu replies. ''Wake up the others and get the shuttle prepped and ready. We're leaving tomorrow earlier than planned. It's a matter of time when the ISB busts our door.''
''Yes sir,'' says the Rebel and he immediately walks away in a rush.
Lu turns around, and Eva can tell from her face that she gives her the blame for getting discovered by the ISB. The anger rises in her eyes as Eva starts to think that the Viper droids have followed her in some way, having seen her running through the streets and alleys while she was too busy looking around for the lines of the passage, the waypoints of the trail.
Lu shifts her head to CK-3 and locks her eyes at the droid and nods. CK-3 acknowledges without saying anything and raises its other hand and clenches its fist, and before Eva can blink, the droid's fist flashes before her eyes and she feels a massive shock of blinding pain jolting through her head. Her mind shatters and her vision blurs as she feels nothing in her legs anymore. The claws release her throat and Eva falls with her knees on the ground and as the darkness dances at the edges of her blurry eyesight, she collapses and her body crumbles lifelessly, and she spins into unconsciousness quicker and quicker until she hears the last gasp of breath she takes and everything goes dark.
''Wow, what's that!''
Even when it's one of the countless, fond memories she shares with Eline, she still remembers this. She felt the breeze that moved through the blond strands of her hair and swayed the desert-yellow grass. It whistled through the sky and the vegetation of the early autumn covered the hill in a thick layer of green grass. Eva felt the grass prickling in her crotch and legs as she sat on the ground with her legs crossed. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but she didn't mind because she sat with Eline. Her sister sat next to her, pointing at the blue sky with white clouds scattered across. Eva looked up and saw a little, black shape cutting through the clouds. She squinted her eyes but it was her ears that got her to recognise the shape as she heard a faint screech echoing through the sky, piercing through the calmness.
''That's a TIE Fighter,'' Eva said, her eyes tracking the black shape in the sky. ''I think he's on patrol, like watching his surroundings to make sure it's all safe.''
Eva turned his head to Eline and she saw the awe in her eyes. The sun twinkled in her blue eyes, amazed by the TIE that seemed to cut through the thick autumn clouds so seamlessly.
''That's so cool!'' said Eline, amazed. ''It's going so fast.''
The breeze swayed her long hair. Eline was eight and couldn't tie her hair up in a bun by herself like Eva. She was too young to learn it, but Eva looked forward to teaching her when she was a little older to memorise and understand it.
''You want to fly one of those?'' Eva asked, a smile forming on her face as she gazed at her little sister.
Eline shifted her head to Eva, the joy twinkling in her eyes. ''Maybe, but I think I'll miss you when you become a Stormtrooper, so-,''
Eva smiled, feeling her heart warming up when she heard that her little sister would miss her when they split at the Academy. At a certain age, they graduate to one of the military branches of the Empire, without taking sisters into account. Whatever branch they separately join, they were both thrilled to serve the Empire.
''Flying would be so cool,'' said Eline with a smile.
Eva nodded as the TIE Fighter disappeared in the clouds. She understood why since the Navy was one of the most prestigious military branches, and flying a TIE itself would never bore her out. She imagined flying along an Aetherwing, its big wings waving and flying elegantly around the clouds instead of brutally punching through them. The awe filled her up too as she kept looking at the sky.
A gust of wind suddenly blew over the grass and swayed Eline's hair in a way that irritated her. Her long strands came in her eyes and she quickly reached out to move them away.
''Why is it always doing this?'' said Eline, irritated.
Eva chuckled and bent herself towards her little sister.
''Let me help you,'' she said, chuckling.
Eline lowered her arms so her older sister could help her with her hair. The girl slightly bent her head to her older sister, and Eva reached out and gently moved her fingers through Eline's hair. She gently stroked her hair and Eva couldn't help but smile. Her heart swelled up with warmth as she stroked her little sister and gathered the blond strands of her hair and tied them together into a bun.
''Now it won't happen again,'' said Eva with a smile.
Eline reached out to the back of her head and stroked her bun with her fingers, and she smiled back, happy that her older sister gave her a helping hand. Never could Eline let go of Eva, and Eva couldn't either. They were sisters who never hated each other, they always loved each other.
After Eva finished tying her hair, her eyes landed on her datapad lying on Eline's lap. It was an old datapad she got from school to do homework on. The screen showed a white canvas with drawings her little sister made. All day, she tried to draw the helmet of a Stormtrooper from memory but Eline had a bit of a struggle doing so. Her sister couldn't draw the visor and some other parts of the helmet correctly, and she had given up many times.
''How's your Stormtrooper so far?'' Eva asked
Eline looked down at her screen and her smile disappeared and frowned.
''He's ugly,'' said Eline, and she let out a sigh. ''I-, I can't draw his helmet, it's too hard.''
Eva nodded and bent a little towards her to look better at the screen. She noticed the visor was crooked, so she picked the pencil from Eline's other hand and started correcting Eline's drawing.
''Okay, look closely,'' said Eva.
Bent over Eline's lap, Eva started drawing a new shape of a helmet and drew the visor with a black, elegant line. She pulled the black line up where the goggles sat where the eyes looked through. Eva drew the visor from memory, and after having drawn the rest, she gave the helmet a double ring as a finishing touch. It was the battalion insignia of Kyraan who just left for the Army. A few months ago, he taught her about Imperial doctrine and the New Order. From birth, the New Order was instilled into the next generation of Imperial servants, and it was teachers like Kyraan who participated in the process.
After she finished drawing, Eva looked up at Eline and saw a hint of question in her blue eyes as she kept her eyes locked on the screen. She seemed unsure about her drawing skills and questioned whether she could draw the same.
''You can do it too,'' ensured Eva.
Eline shifted her eyes to her older sister, still unsure. ''Are you sure? It's hard,'' she said.
''Just keep trying,'' said Eva with a smile. ''Try enough and you'll learn. I'll help you.''
Eline smiled, and she picked the pencil from Eva's hand and started trying it herself. Eline kept her eyes focused on the screen, drawing wobbly lines over the screen, but with Eva next to her, she kept trying. Eva kept looking, taking over where Eline struggled, and each attempt was an improvement of the last. It was a brief but fond memory Eva had, helping out her little sister who was still so young and so innocent. Eline had no idea that beyond the clouds, a war was brewing, a bloody civil war that cost the lives of many, but it didn't matter. Vaulent 6 was so far away from the war that it just didn't matter, and though Eva already started watching the news channels before her father intervened, there was still peace. Eva and Eline took the time to enjoy it, sitting in the grass and helping each other out, being the best sisters for each other they could be. At the end of the day, Eline still couldn't draw the helmet properly. The proportions were still off and her lines were too wobbly to be called elegant, but Eline went home with a good feeling in her heart. Eva was the major light in her life, and so was Eline to Eva. They were sisters who loved each other and-
Suddenly, Eva startles and wakes herself up. Her heart instantly pounds in her chest and she kicks her feet. Her kick gives off a metallic pound that echoes through the room, and Eva is immediately wide awake. Her eyes dart around with panic, wondering what has happened. Her eyes ache from the bright fluorescent lights above her and she gazes around. Eva notices she's in a concrete, cubical room with a single, steel door in front of her. The concrete walls are heavily weathered as if they've been standing here for several decades without having ever been cleaned. Eva wonders where she is, having no recollection of where she previously was. Eva tries digging through her memories but she remembers nothing. Then, as she shifts her eyes down to focus on recollecting her lost memories, her eyes land on her feet, and to her shock, Eva sees her legs chained up to the legs of a chair with metal chains. She tries to move her arms to unchain herself but she feels they're stuck, and feels the cold metal chains cutting through her skin. The chains are painful and she stops moving her arms as it would do more harm. Realising she's chained up to a chair, Eva wonders why. She can't find any memories that explain why and she tries to dig through her memories, but Eva quickly stumbles into a dead end, unable to remember anything.
Then, Eva feels an agonising, sharp pain screeching through her head, and she clenches her teeth and moans with pain. Her eyesight blurs as the pain blinds her and she feels as if her head is cracking open, and then, the memories flood back, as if they burst out of her head that locked them up. She remembers the metal fingers of the droid pinning her against the concrete pillar, and the pain in her throat, but what grips her more is the face of Lu and the words she spoke.
The Rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic will revert the galaxy back in time, when it was at its most peaceful, before the dark times, before the Empire and its tyranny.
As the pain slowly subsides in her head, Eva feels her shattered heart aching, feeling deep sorrow that the person she trusted stabbed her all the time in her back. The mother of her best friend pulling the knife came so out of the blue, and when Lu started talking about her vision of the galaxy and how the Rebel Alliance can make it come true, it shattered not just her heart but the world too, and she can still feel its shards stabbing her. But Eva realises she could've seen it coming. The Spy knew all of her moves, even when she didn't communicate via the channels. The only person who was this close to her to listen to her plans was Lu. She was always with her, and it was sleeping with her best friend that gave away her strategy. Lu, the Spy, had always been listening. Lu could've put her ears on the door of Oliva's bedroom when they discussed, and the trail that Eva followed to Lu consisted of lines of a novel's passage. Dead Hyperspace is a piece of literature. No ordinary Rebel would've come up with it to make a trail from the passage and use the individual lines as waypoints. Only a literature geek would come up with that, a literature teacher, and Lu was one. She taught her literature at middle school before Eva enlisted herself. She could've known it was Lu all along. The most obvious piece of the puzzle was already there, right in front of her, yet she didn't pick up on it. Eva painfully realises she could've known it was Lu. She also realises that Lu was always a step ahead. She was so close to Eva that she didn't even need to put effort into spying on her. She didn't need to intercept her wristlink, all she had to do was put her ears on Oliva's bedroom door or keep an eye on them. Eva realises Lu was always ahead of her. However, what puzzles her is that Lu didn't clean up her trail properly. She left behind some crucial clues for Eva to pick up, and though they were minimal, they were important nonetheless and they led her to Lu. Eva wonders whether Lu did it on purpose or not. Apparently, she's such a skilled spy that she managed to break into the Academy. Why would she leave behind minimal clues? Eva knows Lu is smart enough to clean everything up, but apparently, there's something she hasn't discovered yet, or at least something that doesn't add up. Eva wonders why and tries to search for an answer, but whatever it is, she can't think of any. The sorrow is too deep, the dagger has gone too far and the wounds are unable to heal. She feels the sorrow flood her and her eyes water, feeling the pain of the betrayal of a person she trusted, and feeling the metal chains cutting through the skin of her legs and her arms, Eva feels the despair rising. She has no idea what will happen next and whether she'll ever be freed, but she doubts it. She's captured by the Rebel Alliance, she's become a prisoner of war and a good source of Imperial intelligence. She fears what will happen when she's formally taken into their custody, but she feels no despair because of interrogations, torture or rotting in a prison cell. Eva fears she'll never see Eline again. She hasn't seen her eyes for months, and now that Lu has captured her, she fears she will never see her again, having never said goodbye to her.
I-, I did all of this for Eline. I fought for you because I knew the Spy and 'his' Rebels were involved in your ever-lasting sleep. I fought so I could see you again with the scumbag jailed, but I fought so I could be captured by her. I fell in Lu's trap and now I will never see you again.
The tears form in her eyes, thinking back to her little sister whose blue eyes she could never see again, and they stream down over her cheeks and splash on the floor. The sorrow feels suffocating as she feels the dread of fate closing in on her, coming closer to her like a thunderous cloud cascading over the Capital. Eva sobs and gazes down.
Sister, I'm so sorry. I failed you. I fell. I kriffin' fell and now I have to pay.
She gazes down, the sorrow deep among the shards of her broken heart, and sees a red line on her skin below the metal chain and she feels it. The chains bite like monsters into her skin and it aches relentlessly and fuels her sorrow and pain.
Letting the tears drop, Eva also remembers what pushed Lu to betray her and the Empire. It was how inhumanely he was treated as a Clonetrooper after the Clone Wars, and struggling with perhaps the traumas he developed, it pushed Lu to fight against the Galactic Empire and join the Rebel Alliance, fighting for his father and all the other Clonetroopers. Remembering the words Lu spoke with vengeful anger she didn't expect to come out of her, Eva realises that she doesn't fight just because of freedom and democracy she despises. It's because of a father, and Eva starts understanding Lu's fight against the Empire. However, she's nowhere near agreeing with her. Clonetroopers may have been shoved aside with ease, they were simply at the end of their service. The war was over and the millions of troopers still remaining had become unnecessary. The Empire simply saw no use for them. the Clone Army had to be declared obsolete, which they did. It was too expensive to maintain, and too small to control the galaxy. The Stormtrooper program replaced the Clonetroopers with cheaper, but highly loyal conscripts from all over the galaxy. It was what the antique vendors at Steel Crane Plaza told her, and believing what they said, Eva feels convinced the Clonetroopers deserved to be shoved aside, but hearing how much it has impacted Lu's life and how it fuels her Rebel flame makes her feel like she should perhaps reconsider her opinion. Maybe they shouldn't have been shoved aside so easily after all. And knowing Lu's father was a Clonetrooper, and probably a formidable, skilled warrior too, it makes sense that she's such a skilled Rebel spy. She probably has Clonetrooper genes in her, and she might have learned her fighting skills from him. It makes sense.
Suddenly, Eva hears the pins of the door's lock screech open and the door slides into the wall. She sees Lu stepping into the metal prison block with her black body armor. Her brown eyes land on her as the door closes behind her. A suffocating anxiety rises as Eva's eyes frantically tremble and her mind races with panic. She has no idea what is going to happen to her. Her lungs hyperventilate and her desperate, shaking gasps for air echo through the small jail. Lu keeps her eyes on the captured girl and starts walking around her and lets out a sigh.
''I didn't want to do this to you,'' says Lu, and she walks around her left shoulder.
Eva's heart pulsates relentlessly as she feels Lu's cold hand sliding over her shoulder.
''Sadly, you're a danger to all of us and yourself,'' says Lu, and she walks around her back.
Hearing her Clonetrooper boots thud on the floor, Eva shifts her head to the right, expecting her to pass her right shoulder. The silence that falls, occasionally broken by thudding boots and gasps for air, feels suffocatingly dense, and Eva feels like her lungs can't catch up. Her watery eyes continue to drop tears as they splash on the ground.
Lu passes Eva's right shoulder and looks her in the eyes. Through her anxiety, Eva senses Lu is stuck with something because of her heavy silence. That heavy silence makes her anxiety much worse. It gives Eva no chance to focus on something different other than her anxiety. Lu stops in front of her and looks down at the chained-up girl. She lowers herself to the ground and gazes at her at eye level. Her eyes are sharp and Eva feels her cold breath blowing against her cheek.
''Oh Eva, my little girl,'' says Lu, and she puts her hand on Eva's cheek.
She feels her cheek shivering against Lu's cold hand as Eva keeps on sobbing.
''You don't know where you've landed yourself in,'' says Lu.
Her eyes ache as Eva is forced to gaze at her, and listening to her, she notices that Lu seems genuinely caring and worried. She's been a teacher for a long time so she might have developed a bond with her, but Eva doesn't care how much Lu cares or worries about her. All she sees in her eyes is the burning flame of the Rebel Alliance, contained by a traitor who stabbed her in the back. Eva feels her blood boiling with anger, wanting to break her chains and strangle Lu to death. She longs for her blood to spill over the ground, but she knows she's helpless. Without a free hand or a blaster, she can't do anything. All Eva can do is stare and wait for her fate to catch up with her. She has no idea what Lu is planning to do with her, and the clouded future that is ahead of her makes her bones shiver with anxiety.
Lu lets out a sigh as she keeps her eyes locked on Eva. ''I knew you had that-, that vengeful flame of your fury, but-, have you ever wondered how far you've gone?'' she asks.
Eva swallows heavily, the anxiety making her unable to think of a proper answer. Her mind stutters and creaks with nervousness, unable to form a word, unable to work.
''And I'm not talking about how much trouble you've brought to yourself,'' says Lu. ''I'm talking about how far the Empire dragged you in. What do you think about me aside from being your next kill?''
Eva's throat has dried up, but through the anxiety, her vengeful flame manages to shine on a single thought that arises, a thought that makes her heart skip a beat with suppressed, but fiery rage.
''What-, what I think about you?'' Eva asks, her voice shivering. ''A terrorist, a monster,'' she hisses.
Lu nods with a cold stare. ''A terrorist and a monster,'' she repeats, almost tauntingly. ''I'm sure there's more the Empire lied to you about. Imperial propaganda has rooted deep within you which no child should ever have.''
Eva scoffs shiveringly. ''You-, you call it propaganda? It's the truth. Your freedom fighters are the definition of everything that's wrong with this galaxy. Freedom and democracy are what caused the Republic to collapse in the first place, and the Empire abolished them and made the galaxy a better place with order and security.''
''Order and security?'' Lu asks, tilting her head a little. ''For who?''
''For everyone in the galaxy,'' Eva hisses.
Then, a smile forms on Lu's face. ''I've been active here on Vaulent 6 for eight years, even before I moved here with Oliva. We've been undermining the Empire from that point, and with success. We laid the BlasTech facility in ashes-,''
Suddenly, the memories flood back and Eva explodes forward with boiling rage, but the chains hold her back and she slams against them. Her seat tilts forward, towards Lu. The chains slice through her skin, leaving bloody cut wounds, but hearing the BlasTech facility coming out of Lu's mouth ignited an explosion of rage within her. She remembers the hand of her father holding hers when he guided her through the assembly hall of the factory. It was the factory where he took his last breath before the bomb of a B-Wing struck the site, leaving the BlasTech facility in ashes. Presumably, the same bomber was shot down and crashed in the fields and stormed through her home, killing her mother and almost Eline. Eva discovers that Lu is responsible for the gruesome death of her parents and the indefinite sleep of Eline. The tears suddenly start to stream out of her eyes with sorrow and splash on the ground. Her heart aches with rage and Eva feels urged to break her chains and kill Lu at the spot, longing for blood to spill.
''You-, you did not!'' Eva screams, her sore throat aching.
Eva cries with pain as Lu slowly nods with an unbreakable, cold stare. A hint of sadness is reflected in her eyes, but the flame of rebellion shines brightly as ever.
''Yes, we did,'' Lu replies. ''We destroyed the LNG plant, broke into the Imperial Academy and killed an admiral too. We bombed the Capital Police Department and almost you at the warehouse outside the borders of the Steergard Naval Yard. Oh and, I was behind the train bombing on Kuat too, and tomorrow, the financial district of the Capital will have no skyline any longer. All of its skyscrapers will be gone and Vaulent 6 will lose its economic power.''
Eva swallows heavily, her heart skipping a beat as she imagines the scene. All the skyscrapers, reaching for the sky with each its own shape, crumble and fall down like structures of sand with massive smoke clouds rising in the air and the shockwaves felt all over the city. She imagines the bodybags, just like those in which her parents lied. White body bags, lying on the streets and carried onto the flatbeds one by one. Her lungs ache from the burning anxiety as she imagines the devastation, and the fury within her shines brighter with rage, enraged at what Lu is going to do with the city she has sworn to protect.
Lu then lets out a laugh, nearly sinister sounding but with a shiver of frustration as well, as she sees Eva swallowing heavily. ''Don't worry, we'll do it when no one's around. Civilian casualties are not what we want, of course.''
Even when Lu assures her no civilian casualties will fall, it leaves Eva with a mix of anxiety and rage, knowing the danger of a blast, and enraged at how many lives of Imperials Lu is willing to endanger. Her eyes dart around the room, trying to think rationally, but her mind is burning too hot with anxiety and rage, nearly overheating as Lu's ice-cold voice echoes through the little prison block.
''The Empire truly brought order and security to Vaulent 6 and managed to maintain it, right?'' Lu asks.
The turmoil rises within Eva as she feels the cut wounds caused by the chains bleeding. They ache but the boiling rage within her diminishes the pain.
''Eva, is there truly order and security while we exist and thrive here?'' Lu asks.
Eva struggles to form words, but she knows Lu is lying. She remembers her ordering the Rebel insurgent waking up all the others and preparing for evacuation, and Eva clenches her teeth with anger, ready to scream at her. If-, if you thrive here, why leave? Why kriffin' leave?
The anger and the sorrow boils within her with violence, but Eva is unable to speak.
Lu scoffs at her. ''I guess not. The Empire is failing at maintaining what it promised. It's happening right in front of your eyes, but the indoctrination and the propaganda are rooted so deep within you that you're blind to the truth. Eva, the Empire is crumbling because it promised all the wrong things it can't maintain.''
Eva shifts her eyes down to the ground, trying to clear her mind to spit out the flames of her fury, but breathing heavily and feeling her heart no longer intact, she can't get herself to answer. Lu gazes at her, expecting a vengeful answer from Eva, but she backs down, not wanting the little girl she cares about to finally break down. However, Lu figures her plan will break her anyway, so she stands up from the ground and keeps her eyes on the girl, preparing to leave Eva in the prison block.
Maintaining her cold stare, Lu lets out a sigh with a faint hint of regret and guilt. ''Eva, I'm taking you with me. You're going to the Rebel fleet.''
Instantly, Eva shifts her head up with anxiety, her eyes landing on Lu who's dead serious with her statement. Her breathing picks up with fear and she thinks back to Eline, and the fear of having to let go of her makes her crumble.
''It's better for yourself rather than letting the Imperial mind control root deeper within you,'' says Lu.
''No-, no!'' begs Eva, starting to sob heavier. ''You-, you can't! Don't do that to me! I don't want to leave Eline behind!''
''I'm sorry,'' says Lu, cutting her off, ''but your actions have left me with no choice. The Empire is no good for your mental health, and it's better for you to leave. I'm sorry for your sister.''
Eva crumbles with anxiety and fear as the worst threatens to happen. The only family member still left, Eline, has to be left behind. Panic floods her as the last time she has seen her sister's blue eyes is the morning of the day the Rebel airstrike happened. Eva realises she will never see those eyes again. When she sees Vaulent 6 disappearing into the void of space, she'll never get to teach Eline to tie her hair in a bun or draw a Stormtrooper helmet. She will never see her sister again and Eva knows that when she gets to the Rebel fleet, she will rot away in a prison block and be tortured when they need answers. Even if Lu cares about her, the rest of the Rebel Alliance won't. To them, she's an Imperial scumbag like all the others, that deserves eternal punishment. Even when she's a teenager, twisted by Imperial lies without her being able to do anything about it, she'll be treated like any other prisoner of war. She'll be electrocuted and punched, and even when it's Imperial propaganda that is rooted deep within the girl, Eva knows she won't survive it. She knows she will never see her sister again. Her world and her heart have already broken, and soon, her soul will shatter too.
After Eva hears the pins locking the door of her prison block, the suffocating silence Lu leaves behind, her eyes are locked on the ground with fear. She knows she can't break the chains that hold her, and she can't call in for help. She can feel the cold C-1 Comlink that is enclaved between her chest and her tight suit, but she can't reach it. All of her limbs are locked in position with no way to break through. The blood slowly seeps out of the cut wounds the chains leave behind, but she doesn't itch even a little. Eva is consumed by her fear. The blood that seeps out of her cut wounds is the least of her worries. She'll have to embrace wounds with a magnitude of pain she has never experienced before. Eva's eyesight blurs as the tears continue to stream out of her eyes. Her eyes don't move even in the slightest as her lungs ache relentlessly, constantly hyperventilating with anxiety. Eva knows there's no way out. She's stuck at a dead end with no way to turn around. Not because the odds are against her, but because of herself. Her own actions have led her to this prison block. She shot a Rebel officer in the head because of her rage. She got her and Peyton gunned down afterwards. Their relationship shattered. Eva thought she could glue the shards together, so she went AWOL to make up for the mistakes she made. She took a boy hostage and forced him to watch his father being killed by the Spy. She almost evaporated in a blast and got the ISB on her tail. Every bit of information she managed to find led her to this building. All her actions, fueled with rage and anger to make up for the mistakes she made, sealed her fate. They all led her to this prison block. She'll never see her sister again, awake, walking on two, and saying the kind and soft words to support her older sister. She still lies in shards in a hospital bed, waiting to be glued together and finally wakes up after more than 100 days of a coma. Her relationship with Peyton, Roslin and the rest of the squad shattered. Eva tried to glue the shards together, but the search for the glue caused her to shatter herself.
Eva's heart slowly sinks as she breaks down and cries loudly in her prison block. Her throat aches and her eyes burn as the tears stream over her cheeks. Her voice trembles with sorrow and pain. All of this is because of her mistake. This is the long-term consequence of a single action she made, and it broke her.
Mustafar's Angel of Death, the cold-blooded Rebel scum killer, is brought to her knees, shattered in thousands.