Shadow of the Force
Chapter 35
-Palpatine-
"Fascinating." Sheev muttered to himself as he continued to dissect the small creature's corpse. There was more damage than he'd like, but he'd dealt with worse. The studies he did on Vader's body during its reconstruction being proof enough of that.
This creature showed a potent Midichlorian count, yes but they clearly weren't natural to the body, they'd been acquired later on in life. He'd seen attempts at artificially boosting or obtaining Midichlorians, even organized a few such experiments through the Empire, yet he'd never seen any success such as this where the result was such a seamless integration.
Along with the Midichlorians, he was able to sense something…else, in the corpse. Not with any machine or technology, those failed to pick up anything when he studied and probed the corpse. Scanning DNA and dissecting to study body structure. No, he sensed something else within the Force itself, a power that he'd never sensed before.
Drawing out the blood of the small creature, the corpse having been put in statis to preserve everything, he focused. While his machines could detect nothing apart from a blood type in the crimson liquid, his connection to the force could sense the mysterious power residing within the blood.
He couldn't risk using it on himself, not without knowing the full effects.
"Darth Chrysalis." His voice rung out, both through the air and through the force to his 'apprentice', reminding himself to use the false Sith name he'd given her "Bring me your weakest inquisitor and a stormtrooper with no connection to the Force." This mystery would require experimentation, control groups.
But if it worked then he relished the chance to see what could be done. The power that he could acquire.
"Yes, my Master." He could detect the bitterness in her voice that she thought hidden. It was most amusing how clueless she believed him to be.
With the information of this Battle Station leaked to the Rebel Forces, he'd informed Jade and his most 'trusted' Officers of the imminent attack so they could prepare. Jade had used this opportunity to prepare 'her' rebels as well, intending to use the chaos to assassinate him and Peverel's rebel faction all in one swoop while claiming the throne for herself.
He'd have to decide who he should reward with her body once she failed. He'd have to be very thorough in his decision on who would be the father of his next apprentice.
Or perhaps he should leave it 'up to the force' and merely toss her into a room for the men to have their way with, a force suppression collar would remove any real risk to the crew and they'd likely grow even more loyal to him from the provided entertainment.
"Still, this creature was supposed to have their odd abilities, as does that 'Captain Peverell'." Palpatine focused back on his autopsy "I will need to make sure to have the orders sent to have his body brought to me once he dies." With two samples, ones of different species, he'd be able to more clearly deduce the differences and potentially find the source of their abilities rather than just the vague inclination of 'from the blood'.
With the last of the blood drained he begam removing the bones, knowing that the bones were the source of the production of blood in the body so more clues might be present there as well.
A Sith Lord's work was never done.
-Harry-
Face set in stone, Harry patrolled the Mandalorian shipyard, using his technopathy wherever he sensed it was needed. This would be a major battle, potentially even the final one, Force willing. He couldn't risk leaving anything to chance and was going through every ship one by one to ensure they were up to snuff.
His Officers were doing similar actions with other areas of the Alliance. Contacting allies, coordinating different groups, refining the training of the Mandalorians, and more.
With Anakin they have the aide of the Empire of the Outer Rim helping them. Luke and Leia's father having been systematically removing all the Hutt controlled planets from the grip of the slug like aliens, liberating the planets and even bringing in defectors from Palpatine's Empire who chosen to side with Anakin. Add in Boba Fett's numerous contacts among the Bounty Hunters, the allies Cal's group had made, and those who had simply heard of the Alliance's success and wanted to join in, resulted in a large force ready for war.
Getting to the end of the Shipyard, Harry approached the latest ships the Mandalorians had been building, a pair of battle cruisers that had been started even before the Empire had been driven from the planet. The two battle cruisers were the most heavily armed ships in the fleet, the entire designs having been overhauled and improved upon since his arrival.
And now, to his surprise, they'd apparently been named.
The 'Dobby' and The 'Grievous' stood tall, gleaming and ready for war as Harry stood there, rooted to the spot. The warships, bearing the names of his fallen friends, now stood ready to avenge them.
Giving a soft bitter chuckle, Harry rubbed a bit of dust from his eyes, "Well…I guess you two will be joining me in the fight one last time, won't ya?" Harry shook his head, checking over the ships with even more care than he'd done before.
He intended to do everything in his power to keep Palpatine from taking anyone else away from him.
-Anakin-
Standing at the balcony overlooking the desert of Tatooine, Anakin sighed as he sensed his old apprentice approaching him again. Their first talk had been brief, devolving into an argument where he wasn't sure who started shouting first. After they'd both stormed away he'd been sure he wouldn't see Asoka again…but yet she'd come back.
They'd had a few more talks, and just as many fights, since then and each time they were able to speak for a little bit longer.
"Hello Asoka." He turned to see the woman he'd trained, a far cry from the young Padawan he'd first met back in the days of the clone wars.
"Anakin." She nodded back, neither of them feeling ready to fall back into their old nicknames.
"The Battle is going to start soon." He glanced over to the shipyard where his people were preparing, Bobba Fett organizing the various Bounty Hunters and Mercenaries being brought in and paid for out of Anakin's treasury.
"We always did have the worst sense of timing, didn't we?" Asoka snorted as she leaned against the railing beside him, "Is it true that your kid has R2 with him?"
"And C3PO." Anakin nodded with a wry grin "Honestly, I'm half tempted to suggest they just send R2 to infiltrate the Death Star by himself. He'd probably traumatize the entire Stormtrooper battalion there into surrendering within the hour."
"You're not wrong, and that makes it worse." Asoka sighed at his remark even as he laughed, feeling a bit of weight lift off his shoulders at the familiar interaction.
"Are…are you going to be joining us?" he glanced over at her, the jovial energy fading as he looked at the woman beside him, the orange of her skin matching the orange of the setting suns, "For the battle?"
She clearly picked up on his nervousness asking given the exaggerated eye roll she made sure he saw "Of course I am. I can't leave you alone or you'd just lose another limb."
"I'm not…okay, yeah, that's fair." Anakin started to protest that notion before sighing at the accuracy of that statement.
"Get some rest, we'll have plenty of time to catch up after Palpatine is gone." Asoka pat his shoulder.
"Thanks…Snips." He glanced over as she went stiff before a small smile appeared for a brief moment.
"Yeah, yeah. You too, Skyguy."
-Tonks-
Yawning, Tonks tried not to look as bored as she felt as she stood guard at the second task. The Tournament had been something the various Ministries had been setting up for years, even before Madam Bones had become Minister, but she wasn't sure she could blame Fudge alone for this mess given the other Governments would have had to sign off on it.
An hour spent watching the surface of the lake. No way to see what was going on in the water, no clue as to who was doing well or what. Even the judges couldn't see anything, apparently just relying on who arrives first and the reports from the various mermen in the Black Lake.
The fact that Madam Bone's Niece was apparently the hostage taken for Marcus Potter probably wouldn't do much to help international cooperation going forward. Not with how pathetic the setup for this event was even with Madam Bones and Dumbledore 'supposedly' trying to improve things with Fudge gone.
Using the boring nature of the situation to her advantage, Tonks ran through her checklist of places to look into after the task was done and the massive crowds departed. She'd gotten word of a few shops in Knockturn Alley that supposed could find any reagent the buyers could ask for, for the right price.
They'd always stayed just on the right side of legal, that the Aurors could find anyway, and from what she'd learned by listening in on her coworkers they'd been raided several times with nothing found that broke the law.
Normally shops in Knockturn Alley avoided doing business with Aurors on principle, but with her gifts, anything was possible. And she refused to fail here.
