Shadow of the Force

Chapter 34

-Yoda-

Rain poured down heavily on Mandalore as the once Grand Master of the Jedi order stood beside his old friends. All around him, men and women donned in armor or adorned in robes stood at attention, two ceremonial pyres having been prepared with no bodies to burn.

At the top of the platform with the two pyres, Captain Peverell, the Mandalore and leader of the Alliance, led the funeral eulogy for two of the resistance's officers.

Dobby, a mischievous being who he felt would have made an interesting addition to the Jedi Order back before the empire. At the very least his presence would have certainly made the Council Meetings livelier.

Grievous, a name he had known only of as an enemy during the clone wars but who had given his life to save comrades and to ensure the resistance had the intel to help stop the empire.

Then there was the Captain, providing a demonstration Yoda wished he wasn't receiving on the matter they had debated before. He could feel the grief in the young man, the pain, the sadness, the mourning, and the intense burning rage at what had happened to those he cared about. Yet despite all those emotions that the Jedi Order had seen as taboo, as a path to the dark side, he couldn't sense any darkness within the captain. The captain knew grief, he knew loss, and sadness, and rage and could handle the without being consumed.

But beyond the negative emotions running rampant through the funeral, Yoda could feel determination, an iron will from all those here to make sure their death's weren't in vein. He could feel the love that those who had known them had felt for the two, and even those who hadn't still cared for the people who had helped liberate Mandalore from the Empire. He could feel the twisting knotted tangle of joy and grief as those who mourned remembered the good times of those who were gone, and accepted the pain of this remembrance with open arms.

"And to the living Force I send your spirits!" Harry's voice echoed out over the downpour as he held a torch aloft, the flame burning despite the rain "In our hearts your memory will be carried! Your will is our will! In your name, and all those who have been taken by the Empire, we shall burn the Death Star!" the man touched the two pyres which burst into bright golden flames, Yoda startled by the intensity and color "For Mandalore!"

"HOORAH!" the thousands of Mandalorians in full Baskar armor shouted, slamming their fists against their breastplates, the sound echoing like thunder over the storm, making Yoda jump.

"For the Fallen!" Harry roared as the Mandalorians repeated the action, the thunderous sound echoing out seemingly even louder.

"TO VICTORY!" the final roar and its accompanying response was so loud, and seemingly rippling out through the force, Yoda wondered if even the Emperor felt it on his black throne.

-Harry-

Taking deep breaths to help keep control, Harry continued to reach out through the force, feeling the presence of those he cared for as they all mourned Dobby and Grievous. Beside him, he could sense Oola and Leia, their hands clutching his own.

The recent memories were full of conflict. The joyful experience of the three experimenting with what they now shared mixed with the pain of knowing that their friend's mission had been going wrong at the same time.

"When do we move?" Luke's expression was stone, he and Marris the most determined to strike back at the Empire after the mission.

"Soon." Harry promised, "We need to have our allies readied first. Your father at the very least, as well as any other support we can come across, contacts that would be willing to strike out against the Empire."

"No shortage of those." Galen crossed his arms, "Anyone in mind?"

"The Bounty Hunters maybe?" Cal frowned, "The Jedha Guardians might be willing to provide some aide, and Merrin has been doing her best to gather any surviving Night Sisters that were scattered by the empire." The redhaired Jedi glanced over at his wife who nodded at that.

"I have a feeling that the Emperor himself might be on that station." Harry nodded to the suggestion offered, many in the inner circle seeming surprised by that "He had Vader keeping an eye on the first one, and whoever he has as his new apprentice won't be anywhere near as capable, not to mention this is the second time he's had to make one. He'd likely want to oversee it personally."

"That's a good point." Obi-Wan straightened, "At the very least he'd have someone he trusted with high standing and security clearance there to oversee things if he wasn't doing it himself. A target like that would likely know where the Emperor is."

"Since we know he's rarely in his 'Palace'." Marris scowled, those who had grown up in the Jedi order being bitter about the fact that Palpatine had turned their old temple into his personal palace, defiling it with his twisted presence in reality and in the force.

"Too easy to assassinate him if he was there often enough for people to notice." General Koda scoffed, "He's a paranoid bastard, but unfortunately smarter than any of us would like."

"The plans imply the Death Star isn't operational, but we can't trust that information to be up to date or accurate." Harry brought up the blueprints again, "For all we know it'll be capable of firing the day we arrive."

"Assuming it's even there." Oola frowned, "This all could be faked documents the Empire planned to leak to bait us somewhere."

"But can we really risk that gamble?" Leia countered, "If they're real and we let the Empire finish that abomination then countless lives will be lost."

"I'll go inform father." Luke straightened, "Bobba Fett works for him and will likely know which Bounty Hunters and Mercenaries would be both willing to come and be trustworthy enough to invite."

"Merrin and I will go contact our old allies." Cal nodded as the group began to break up, everyone moving out to contact anyone they could think of who could help, no matter how few or far between they may be.

"Come on Harry." Leia squeezed his hand, "You shouldn't be alone right now."

-Annakin-

"My forces will be there Luke; you have my word." Annakin nodded, able to see the grief in Luke's eyes as the information about both the lost friends and the new Death Star was shared, "And I will have Fett call in his allies. You will not fly alone."

"Thank you…father." Luke nodded as Anakin felt a surge of joy rise up, refusing to be quashed, the feeling persisting even as the call ended and Luke's face vanished from the holo projector.

"Master." Lumiya's voice reached out to him through the force, "There is someone here to see you, a Togruta. I can feel her connection to the Force. Do you wish for me to remove her?"

"No…no, I should have known this was coming." Anakin let out a tired sigh, "I will come and speak to her." Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin was sure he could see the blue ghostly visage of Qui-Gon nodding to him.

-Tonks-

Standing in the stands, Tonks tuned out the screaming drama of the people gathered in the stands, lost in her own thoughts. Down bellow her she could see Marcus Potter being brought out to deal with the Norwegian Ridgeback that had been brought in for him to get past. She heard a few rumors that the Dragon had been hatched by Hagrid a few years before, but she wasn't sure how believable that was.

The dragon wasn't even what even what dominated her thoughts right now, it was the ritual. She had been collecting reagents and ritual components ever since she'd confirmed that the ritual could bring Harry back to her. The issue was that things kept going wrong to the point she was sure someone was working against her, but she didn't have any idea as to who.

'Accidents' kept happening to the tools she was making for the ritual, rendering them useless. Or she'd finally find a store that sold one of the components only for someone else to apparently buy the entire stock of the one component she needed out of nowhere. She was still making progress, but it was slower than she'd like.

A loud shout of "Depulso!" startled her from her thoughts as she glanced down to see Marcus having used the banishing charm on the gravel and slate ground, sending stone flying to block and disrupt a burst of flames, those in the stands not from Hogwarts seemingly stunned at the potency of the spell.

It was something that Marcus apparently had in common with his brother. She remembered Harry had picked up the summoning and banishing charms unnaturally quickly and they were definitely stronger than when most people used the simple spells. Marcus admittedly wasn't as proficient with them as she remembered Harry being with them back in Fourth Year, but he was certainly better than she'd been back then.

The Ridgeback was clearly just as startled as its audience, head reeling back from the power of the charm as Marcus kept running, a few illusions coming from his wand to distract the dragon as Marcus waited for it to be looking away.

"Accio!" the summoning charm, something that shouldn't have worked on the tournament eggs, powered through those spells somehow as the golden creation flew into Marcus Potter's waiting arms.