"Look at this."
Leia was astounded at what they'd found. With Luke presumed dead, he could do the necessary work to investigate the opening rifts across the galaxy that continued popping up, but what he'd found at one particular powerful new rift that had opened at Naboo positively blew him away. It'd been a Force prophecy…on the Dyad.
The ancient prophecy had been carved into a collapsed temple on Naboo, buried, in all places, beneath the spot where the Dyad had frequently been vacationing before Naboo had kicked them off the planet. Perhaps the Dyad themselves had collapsed the temple, for what it SAID about the Dyad…was very revealing. Luke had scanned the ancient carvings and had begun translating them, and he'd already learned so much!
"You're sure this is what it says?" Leia asked as Han stood behind her, one hand on her shoulder as Luke nodded sagely. The text read that the Dyad could tap into the Force in a way no other could, that they would be able to "hear what no others could, see what no others could. All would be a unified chorus to them". But that had been only the first part of the prophecy. The rest had been broken into chunks, and it was far harder to read.
Perhaps that'd been WHY the Dyad got rid of it, if they were responsible. If they couldn't translate it…nobody else would! But Luke had many more years of experience with the old Jedi texts. After all…he'd been running a Jedi school. You had to know a thing or two about the ancient writings, and months of studying the ancient tomes meant he had a leg up on the Dyad. He'd been able to translate the second part!
"Yes, it took me three days but I finally pieced it all together." Luke said as he gestured behind him. The chunks of the prophecy that had been broken off the walls of the temple now laid in a big, sort of quilt-like pile on a large blanket behind him. "To think, I used to HATE puzzles!" He laughed. "But boy, what a discovery. The translation's clear. "The symphony unites us all. Hear it in your heart. The Force will guide you, and all will be united. Dyads, hear the clarion call, and lead the galaxy into a greater tomorrow. You will all bring balance to the Force." Luke translated. "DYADS. Plural. There are more than one." He said, his eyes wide with a sense of childlike wonder. "Perhaps dozens, maybe hundreds, the tone of the prophecy seems to imply their numbers are so great, Leia…"
"It'd be a wonderful thing if we could find Dyads of our own…" Leia admitted. "It'd be a powerful symbol of hope for the galaxy. Uniting fronts that we could rally around…and we could take back what it means to be a Dyad. It'd no longer be associated with Darth Furiosa and Raize. It could mean trust again. REAL trust for the Jedi, especially on Nar Shadaa and other planets that have been so poisoned on what a Jedi is…"
"Do you think, perhaps…maybe…that kid, Zack, and Omarosa…that they're a dyad? I mean, they work awfully well together…" Han confessed as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And it was kind of a miraculous thing that they just happened to find one another…"
"It WOULD be quite fortunate if they were." Luke admitted. "I'm going to keep checking this temple, to see if there's more to the prophecies. There's an amazing amount of rubble here." He added before a rumbling filled the air and he cringed, stepping quickly to the side to avoid a bit of falling roof. "Darn it!" he grumbled. "The rift's been causing seismic activity left and right. Worse still, it's getting harder to predict with the Force where the danger's coming from! The more portals and rifts we find, the bigger the drain on my powers…and we still don't have a way to close them."
"We've got our finest scientific minds working on that." Leia offered warmly. "I'm waiting to hear back from the New Republican's scientific council on their latest tests. If all goes well, we'll have a report tomorrow, right after the debate."
"Good luck tonight." Luke told his sister with a smile. "You're gonna do great, I'm sure. You've got a way with words."
"Hey, you're not half bad yourself, y'know." Han laughed. "I think it runs in the family." He said as he gave Leia a one-handed hug, and Luke smiled back at his old friend, giving a nod as he ended the call, and Leia got out a small datapad, scrolling over it.
"Alright, I've been studying the Dyad's commercial spots to really hammer out responses to their talking points. I want to do a bit of practice…think you could stand in for Raize again?" Leia asked her husband.
Meanwhile, Zack's lungs felt like they were on fire as he carried L'ezz to the ship, hopping onto the ramp JUST in time as Omarosa lifted it off the planet's surface and soared away ten seconds before the volcano's hot magma reached them. The sweeping flood of lava had almost dissolved them on the planet's surface, along with the temple, but they'd just barely gotten to safety in time, and were now all together in the ship, as Zack put L'ezz down, whilst Finn and Poe were sitting across from them.
"You alright?" Zack gently asked L'ezz, who was sweating up a storm, and panting heavily.
"I'm s-sorry. I'm sorry I'm such a fat fuck." The Gamorrean apologized profusely. "It's so embarrassing that I can't keep up with you!" He moaned as he held his head in his thick and meaty hands, Zack giving him a playful whack on the shoulder.
"Hey, look, it's alright." Said "Darth Mendax" as Finn looked over at him, and then at the Gamorrean, who was looking into Zack's eyes. His eyebrows shot up as he realized the look on the Gamorrean's face…he'd seen it himself, many a time, on Poe's. That familiar, gentle gaze…
"You're so nice to me. You've always been so nice…" L'ezz began to say before he stopped, noticing Finn and Poe were looking at them. "…oh, right. We can't forget about you two."
"We'll drop you off at Nar Shadaa…but you're not coming along with us." Darth Mendax said as he rose up, looking in the direction of the two Sith. "Count yourself lucky I'm not the sort of person who'd leave people to die horribly if I could help it."
"You're not like a normal Sith, are you?" Poe inquired.
"Neither are you two." Darth Mendax said. "You haven't once tried to draw your weapons or attack us since we busted you out of the prison cell you'd been in."
"We're not INCONSIDERATE, geez!" Poe grumbled as he pouted and folded his arms over his chest. "I take it you're going to Nar Shadaa because the election's almost about to begin? And no doubt you'd LOVE to see our masters lose."
"Yes. The idea of them losing miserably in an election makes me happy." Darth Mendax remarked. "I have a lovely mental image of them crying in each other's arms, watching the results come in on their televisions as they try to console one another with big scoops of ice cream. "Here! C-Comes! The! C-Choo! Choo!" He mocked, pretending to be a sobbing Rey as L'ezz began to snort with laughter, Rose giggling a bit as Omarosa began to laugh uproariously.
"Don't be ridiculous. They don't even LIKE ice cream." Finn said quickly as Poe looked over in his direction. "They eat popcorn."
…
…
…
… "You're not worried about any…problems?"
It was the day of the debate and Han was walking alongside Leia as they approached the debate stage. A host of guards and police had filled the big stadium where the debate would be taking place, the anxious mill of people murmuring and muttering filling the air, everyone eager to find out what the most famous politician in the galaxy would have to say to the Dyad tonight. The stadium had been divided up into two sections, with two podiums. One held the Dyad's side, the other, Leia and Han, with two people speaking for each side for five minutes to answer the moderator's questions and then it'd be a nice free-talk where they could go after one another right after that.
But though there were a host of guards and police from both Nar Shadaa AND the New Republic there to be bodyguarding the Dyad AND Han and Leia, Leia couldn't help but shake the feeling something was off. As if some dark, malevolent force was watching.
Junior, one of the captains of the guard for the Dyad, was being the moderator for the debate, and he'd shaken both his mistresses hands and now shook Leia's as he welcomed her onto the stage. He'd leaned in to ask the question, but Leia had to shake her head.
"I'm fine…really. It'll be fine."
But she wasn't sure she believed that. She was SURE someone powerful, someone dark, was watching…and it wasn't the Dyad. She took her spot with Han behind her podium as Junior cleared his throat. "We are now setting up a protective shielding around this stage to prevent any violence, from thrown bottles and vegetables to laser fire." He announced as he spoke to the microphone. A few people went "AWWW" and tossed their tomatoes away. SCHA-SPLAT! They landed with a wet, meaty thud on the ground as Galish "Junior" Wuhd'fall spoke up again. "We'll begin with our opening statements. Darth Raize…Darth Furiosa…you may speak first."
"My opponent is a liar and cannot be trusted. The Republic failed Nar Shadaa again and again. The Republic failed the galaxy again and again. The JEDI failed it again and again. And now you want to put your trust in the very people that dropped the ball?" Darth Furiosa inquired, raising an eyebrow up as she gestured at Leia. "The failure that is the Old Guard? Really? Who thinks that's a good idea?"
"Don't put your trust in The League of Those Who Can't Do. You know our record. Judge us on that. We've delivered success after success. We've made Nar Shadaa strong. Our path's better than what they have to offer." Rey insisted. "They've got nothing to offer that we haven't already seen. And we've been there, done that."
"Leia, you and Han's response?" Junior inquired.
"It's ironic that they bring up the failures of what came before. Every "failure" they speak about was caused by Sith interference. The Jedi were undermined and exterminated by the Sith. The Old Republic was betrayed from within by the Sith, who started a war to help bring it down and consolidate power. The Jedi and the Old Republic had a millennia of peace until the Sith meddled and screwed it all up." Leia said dryly, raising a single eyebrow up. "But their argument is…trust us? It'd be like trusting the fox to run the hen house. "Believe us! The Republic will fail! And we should know, because we MADE it fail!"
"Our Republic is run by representatives who have to answer to their people. We don't kill people for not following our laws. We'd never shoot someone out the window for questioning our leadership. We're better than that. We'll be better for Nar Shadaa. You all tried Sith. Come back to the Light." Han spoke up, bowing a bit before he put a hand on his wife's shoulder and beamed.
"Well. On to the first question. These were submitted in advance, after being voted on by the people, the most popular questions, beginning from tenth to the first." Junior announced as the crowd murmured and whispered among one another. "And our first voted-on question is a doozy. Mandalorian attacks have evidently been on the rise. We've lost contact with a few planets on the edge of the Outer Rim that spoke about invaders in distinct, Mandalorian armor. Suppose the Mandalorians unleash, say, a plague on Nar Shadaa, a Rakghoul plague that would annihilate the planet, and those on Nar Shadaa are about to leave, and infect even more people. What would you do if something like that happened?"
"Well…that's a horrible scenario. I'd never, EVER want it to come to that." Rey confessed as she and Furiosa looked at one another and nodded. "But if we know that they're about to head off-world…if need be, I would destroy the entire planet rather than risk infection, and millions, if not billions MORE becoming infected."
"I see. Do you feel the same?" Junior inquired of Furiosa as she nodded. "Very well. Leia? You and Han's response?"
"The problem with that question is a Rakghoul plague isn't a guarantee. For one, is the plague contained to, say, one city or has it actually infected the whole planet by now? If it IS just the one city, could we quarantine it? If it's the whole planet, would, perhaps, a blockade and a no-fly order suffice? On top of that, there's been talk of cures for the Rakghoul plague. One was discovered centuries ago, we know THAT, but not what it was. So that, to me…is a sign of hope. If it could be cured once, it could be cured again, and I won't doom a whole planet on such a possibility." Leia insisted firmly. "I won't walk down the same path as the people I'm fighting. I would rather die with honor that live WITHOUT it. Our integrity is ALL we have. Our morals are all that we have. If we just decide to shove them on a shelf because it's hard to stick to them…how good were they to begin with?"
"Mr. Solo…have you anything to add?" Junior politely inquired as Han shook his head.
"I couldn't match what Leia just said. I'm not even gonna try. She's right. Plain and simply, she's right. We have to stick to our principles. They don't mean squat if you can just toss them away anytime you feel like it."
And that…was when it happened. All of the lights cut out in the stadium as darkness flooded everywhere. People screamed in terror, eyes bulging in fright as everyone looked around, the power seemingly completely cut out before the emergency power flooded on. Now the ground was softly lit up with faint red lights, the protective shield around the stage still manifested…
But now somebody stood tall and proud high above, on the scaffolding.
"Sorry to have to rain on your parade…"
There he stood…the Skull of the Sith, his fiery head burning bright like an infernal lantern as he leisurely grinned with his skeletal smile "Wow. I REALLY gotta hand it to you ladies. Especially Leia. Such charisma! You're a bigger catch than I thought. You really are everything I heard about."
"Who the HELL are you?!" Rey immediately snarled as she held up her fist and clenched it tight. She hadn't put her lightsaber on, such open weapons were forbidden at the debate, but she was still a Sith! But when she tried to use the Force to yank on him…
Nothing. It…it wasn't working?! Her eyes went wide as the Skull smirked. Furiosa's eyes narrowed as she looked at the middle of his chest, the distinct symbol that was embedded in his armor. A familiar one…the insignia of the Galactic Empire. Yet…it glistened with a strange, glowing miasma, alight with a pale, icy blue.
"You may call me…the Skull of the Sith. Or rather…your executioner!" The Skull proclaimed. Well, quite naturally, a few of the guards took aim and shot at him. The harsh blast of plasma fire seared the air, shooting at him and…
Did jack shit. The Skull just yawned and dusted himself off as not even a little cloud of dust or smoke rose up from where he'd been shot.
"I'm sure on some planet your sharpshooting's impressive. See, your weak link is…I'M FROM EARTH."
Rey's skin became so sallow you'd think she developed jaundice. Furiosa's eyes bulged so wide you'd think someone was squeezing her head to pop them out like grapes! The Skull snapped his fingers and BWOOOOSH! The two guards who'd fired on him were now bursting into flames, Rey and Furiosa reeling back in shock as the Skull laughed psychotically. "Gonna be a HOT TIME in the old town tonight! I'm going to be burning down the royal family tree of the Organa line!"
People were yelling, shrieking, running away in terror, Junior trying to keep the cameras on this new monster as he quickly got out his communicator and turned to the "special line" he had set up with the New Republic. "Anyone listening?! ANYONE?! We've got an attack on the stage, some being with a flaming head who can make fire shot out of nowhere!"
Luckily for him, someone WAS listening. Zack and the others heard everything through the channel and they decided…screw dropping Finn and Poe off. The ones they cared most about were in danger. Zack wasn't gonna deprive them of a chance to save them. He wasn't a jerk.
"Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!" Another guard roared out as he more wisely tried to use very-impressive looking shock sticks. They hummed with electrical power as the Skull smirked and leaped down at him and his other three friends as they all activated their own shockers! Rushing at the Skull of the Sith, they swung, attacking as one, intent on electrocuting him to death AND beating him into a mushy pulp at the same time!
The good news was that he dived back. Clearly he was actually worried about being struck. Obviously he wasn't impervious to weapons. The bad news…was he BREATHED. A horrific, foul, disgusting miasma shot out of his skeletal jaws, and they reeled back in horror, clutching at their armored frames. "What the hell's wrong with you?!" Furiosa asked before she noticed there was a soft…glow…to the frames. "…oh no. OH NO."
"Oooh, you got a good head on your shoulders! For now, anyway. Yep!" The Skull laughed. "I'm…RADIOACTIVE! RADIOACTIVE!" He sang out darkly, holding a fist up high as it burned with a powerful light, and then he KICKED one of the guards. The man went flying into his compatriots, knocking them over as Han quickly pulled something out from his belt, and then launched it at the Skull.
THWAAA-SCHWOOSH! It wasn't a grenade, though. Not a NORMAL one at any rate. A disgusting, foul-smelling goo coated the Skull and pinned his arms to his sides as he looked down in surprise, wheeling on Han and Leia. "Well, well, well, Han Solo himself. I've heard you're hot shit. Guess you're not as dumb as you look after all."
"HEY!" Han frowned a bit before he smirked and held up his pistol and took aim at the Skull's head. "Anyone tell you that you talk too much?"
"All the time." The Skull laughed. "Let me show you my own little party trick!"
He clenched both fists, and his entire body suddenly glowed bright. Han, quite wisely, took hold of Leia and ducked down, as Rey grabbed Furiosa and dived as well. KRAKA-SCHAAAA-THROOOOOOOM! The Skull seemed to explode outward in a blaze of suicidal glory, his entire frame blowing up, scattering his armor left and right! People screeched, those who hadn't run away yet were singed, seared, chunks torn off of them as the armor chunks struck! One man lost his head and Leia screamed in horror, seeing it rolling to the feet of Junior as he held his hands over his mouth and suppressed a vomit before realizing something was horribly wrong…
The HEAD. That burning head was still hovering in the air! He laughed and laughed, and before their eyes, all of the blown-apart chunks…popped right back in place as he flexed his arms and darkly grinned. "How about a little…PIECE…conference, ladies?" He cheerily remarked as he lifted a leg and his right foot, the last chunk, popped back on…and he kicked Furiosa in the face, shifting quickly across the stage.
THWAM! The dark-skinned woman was sent flying back, as Rey gasped. "NO! ARI!"
"OHHH. Her real name's "Ari", eh? I knew it couldn't be Furiosa, you obviously stole that. So let me guess…it's short for "Ariana"?" The Skull darkly inquired as he grabbed hold of Rey by her throat, lifting her up. Han naturally shot up and fired at the Skull, but, sure enough…his blaster bolts didn't do a thing, even when they hit the Skull's…well, SKULL! They just harmless dissipated. Damn it, he'd hoped that maybe it'd just been the armor that was apparently plasma proof!
"Let her go!" Rey snarled as The Skull smirked, and then slooowly traced a single finger right over Ariana's cheek. She howled in agony, radiation burning across her cheek as foul, noxious blackish/reddish wounds formed where he'd traced his finger, Leia looking disgusted as Han reached into his belt again to try and find SOME kind of weapon that could work. He didn't want to use a normal grenade, too dangerous! And he didn't have an electro-weapon…
But he DID have a knife. It wasn't a plasma knife. Just a regular, albeit very sharp tungsten steel knife. He held it in his hands, looking back at the Skull. He'd only have one good shot at this…
"You coward, attacking a lady's face!" Rey snapped.
"…um…EXCUSE ME?" The Skull turned to glare right at Rey, and then tossed Ariana at her. THWAM! They flopped together in a pile as the Skull KICKED Rey in the side. "Don't insult me! You think this is a playground? On the battlefield, no matter who or what you are, the strong live and the weak die, I don't care if you're man, woman, or anything in between!" He added as he turned around.
THWAA-SHAKK! Han drove the knife right up, through his chin. He grinned proudly. "Knife to see you're an equal-opportunity scumbag." He proclaimed, as the Skull reeled back, clutching his head.
"AARRGGH! AAAAHHH! Oh God, it hurts! It hurts! It huuuurts!" He screeched out as Han grinned…and then the Skull kicked him so hard he went sailing through the air and through the podium, collapsing in a near-broken heap, blood drizzling out the side of his mouth from clear internal injuries.
"Just kidding." The Skull tugged the knife out of his head and looked it over, slowly tracing a finger over the edge before he advanced on Leia. "Leia Organa-Solo, killed by her own husband's final, desperate attack on me. Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think?" He chortled as he advanced on Leia as she rose up. "Now it's time to die. Once you're dead, your forces will lose all hope. They'll never raise a hand against the new Sith Empire! If you thought those two in the corner were bad, wait until you get a load of my compatriots and our master. Your galaxy will be BEGGING for the authoritarian space lesbians to come back!"
"How DARE you judge us by YOUR standards!" Leia snapped, her eyes blazing, her arms folded over her chest, not willing to give this monster an inch of fear or terror. "Rebellions live on Hope. And that lives in every heart in the New Republic. Doesn't matter if I'm gone, monster. That hope for a better galaxy will remain, to stand up to men like you…because there's ALWAYS men like you."
"Well, well. You really got some spunk." The Skull grinned broadly, and Leia was surprised at how SINCERE he sounded. "You got girl balls! It's too bad you gotta die now." He admitted as he held the knife up high. "Farewell, your highness! I'd say "there is no Death, only the Force", but well…you of all people know there's a LOT of death…"
"HEY ASSHOLE!"
SCHAA-SWHOOSH! And then his arm fell off, cut clean off by a thrown lightsaber that whizzed through the air, then snapped back into "Darth Mendax's" hand as he stood alongside Finn and Poe. L'ezz was already helping Junior and the last of the civilians off to safety with Rose and Omarosa by his side as "Darth Mendax" frowned in the Skull's direction.
"That's NO way to treat a lady."
"Wow, you actually survived a volcanic death trap?" The Skull gaped in amazement. "Now THAT'S impressive!" He proclaimed. "You're hot shit yourself. This is gonna be a real fun time!" He laughed as he held a hand up and THWAA-SCHWOOOOOOOOOOOM! Everyone reeled back as a bolt of burning radioactive energy soared up, and then THAT was when HE appeared, landing down expertly in the middle of the ground where the crowd had been.
The android had a singular, greenish eye, with well-developed-looking arms and legs made up of robotic sinewy muscles. He had thick, clawed hands, booted feet, and wire-like "dreadlocks" running down from the back of his head, as that singular synthetic eye gazed out at them all and he held up a hand and pointed at the Skull.
"Skull, you were supposed to wait until after the debate, when it was clear we had a winner for maximum effectiveness." The being spoke in a distinctly synthetic tone that reminded them of those old holo-vids they'd seen of the "Droidekas" of the Trade Federation. There was an unpleasant uncanny-valleyness to his voice, his singular eye blazing with a sense of clear irritation at the Skull.
"What can I say? I couldn't wait." The Skull remarked. "Thanks for coming at my signal. Meet the Eye of the Sith…he's got one particularly nice little Force ability…"
The Eye clapped his hands, and in that instant, it was as if an invisible shockwave shot through the air. Everyone felt it rippling through their bodies, as they reeled back slightly, cringing. It was as if something thick and heavy had somehow passed through them, and yet left their bodies intact, and now there was just some odd sort of…coldness…to the air. A sense of vacant, abyssal darkness that lingered that made it slightly difficult to breath…
"Was that supposed to impress us?" Poe held his hand up and focused RIGHT on the Skull…
And he gaped. Nothing. Absolutely nothing! "Okay, fine, so you've got some Force resistance to that? Don't care, I'll just crush you under-" He aimed his hand at a large hovercar parked not too far away, left when people went scrambling to safety, but…jack squat! NOTHING was happening! He couldn't lift it! Darth Mendax held his head, cringing, slightly staggering around as Leia gripped her chest and cringed.
"I…I feel weaker…that…that robot did something to us!"
"I don't feel any different…" Han said as he felt over himself, scratching his head slightly before the realization struck him. Everyone else there looked so much worse off, and they all were feeling weaker…
"Wait. That robot put up some kind of Force Field! And it's keeping you from tapping into the Force!"
"The Force Nullification Field. A kind of Sith curse." The Eye intoned.
"See, this is why the two of us NEVER lose a battle when we're together!" The Skull laughed as he held out his fist and then flicked his middle finger right at Rey as she angrily rose up, a snarl on her face. "You're outta your league!"
"I'M GONNA FRY YOU!" She snarled, holding her hand out, lightning beginning to pulsate in her fingers, at the tips with a SSSSSSZZZZ…before they fizzled out right before her eyes.
"Get it? Everyone but me and my buddy the Eye have our ability to tap into the Force sealed." The Skull laughed as Finn growled angrily.
"You cheap bastard! Can't you fight us fairly?"
"Oh, spare me the sermon." The Skull snorted as he shot forward and kneed the poor Finn right in the stomach, knocking him down as he grabbed Poe by his shirt and darkly grinned. "I don't like to fight…but I DO LOVE TO WIN!" He laughed.
"This will be, simply, a slaughter without your powers." The Eye intoned. "I almost feel bad for you. Almost. This wasn't exactly what the plan was, but it would seem things have worked out well for our side, if we can get rid of all of you so easily, in one fell swoop-"
He barely ducked in time as Zack swung his lightsaber at him. Poe, meanwhile, had actually done something really low-down and dirty…and stuffed his saber RIGHT up the chin of the Skull! The Skull shrieked, a real, true cry of agony as he was forced back, Poe yanking it out as he held it up proudly and swung at the Skull, slicing his arm clean off as it went flopping to the ground before he kicked the Skull back!
"Wow, even after your powers are reduced you're skill alive and…kicking!" The Skull laughed as the Eye held up its arm, and a shuddering electrical shield manifested to block the blows of "Darth Mendax". The loud sizzle of shield and lightsaber rang through the air as the Skull held his other arm up and clenched it into a fist as his cut-off arm popped back on, whizzing back in its socket. "Heh-heh-heh. Come on. Hit me with your best shot."
"I don't need my best for YOU." Poe said as he launched something from his own belt…a flash bang! The Skull was blinded, reeling back, shrieking as Poe launched himself at him and Finn helped Rey and Ariana up as Leia helped up Han.
"We've got to book it." Finn insisted. "We can't stay here, not when we know nothing about the enemy's full extent of abilities. We can regroup and come back at them later."
"I'm sorry, were you thinking of running away? After all this time we took to try and kill you?" The Skull remarked snarkily before he ducked to avoid a sweeping strike from Poe. The Eye seemed to comprehend perfectly and he slammed his hands together as a "normal" shockwave launched Darth Mendax back. The robot spiralled through the air, racing at Leia, reaching out to grab her, JUST as Han pushed Leia out of the way.
The robot grabbed him by his chest, and something grey, a strange liquid, began pouring over him! It spread like wildfire over Han's body as his scream was silenced swiftly, everyone gasping as they looked on in sheer shock! A moment later…KROOOOOM! A sound like thunder as Han was now a metallic statue as the Eye removed its hand and the Skull managed to make Poe reel back with an attempt at his foul breath-like weapon.
"Ha ha ha ha! We've read about how Mr. Solo was encased in carbonite, and we simply HAD to come up with our own technique. It really is a brilliant bit of robotics. Carbonite Skin Cocoon! Oh, don't worry! He's alive…for now." The Skull said as he leaped through the air and gripped around Han's neck, and then slowly rubbed over it with his fingers. "So then, Princess Leia…whatever are you going to do? You're not gonna just abandon your husband, now are you?" He darkly inquired. "Someone as noble and with such integrity as you would NEVER do that."
Leia's fists curled so hard and so tight her fingernails dug deep into her skin, drawing blood. Her face was a mask of raw fury as The Skull and the Eye looked at her, the Eye seemingly emotionless, the Skull grinning broadly.
"It's so rough to be a hero, ain't it? Heh-heh-heh-heh…so what'cha gonna do?"