Hey guys, it's time for a new chapter! I'm definitely going to get this chapter out quicker than the last one! Thank you so much for reading up to this point! We're almost done with the Jedi Fallen Order story arc! I'm still thinking about whether I want to dive into Survivor as well. I don't know, we'll see! Please comment or review on the chapter because I love hearing what y'all have to say! Finally, here's the chapter!

Ch. 24: The Inquisitor Fortress

(Cal's POV)

BD-1 and I stood there in the pod even though there was a seat behind me. My nerves were firing too fast for me to sit down. I watched as the environment outside changed from space to ocean. Bubbles rose in front of the pod glass, and I put on my breather. Luna should be putting hers on right about now, too. BD-1's antennae perked up in anticipation of the mission, and I patted him on the head.

"You ready for this, BD?"

He booped at me excitedly, and I smiled a bit. At least he wasn't nervous about this whole thing. We were infiltrating the Inquisitor Fortress! This is no ordinary Imperial base. I think he's just excited about finding another unique plant or hanging out with me and Luna. Speaking of Luna, I'm not about to leave her to face Trilla on her own again. I can't allow my Jedi Psychometry to overtake me like that. The thing with Trilla's lightsaber was that it had such a strong memory attached to it. Trilla's in the deepest, darkest place anyone can get in. I'm not so sure we can get her out of that place…

"Okay, let's go."

I opened the pod door, and water rushed in. The water felt lukewarm, and I blinked a few times to adjust my vision. It was dark, but there were patches of yellow plants that had bioluminescence. I looked around for Luna's pod and saw her exiting it, her long hair flowing outward with the water. I watched her search for me a second before she saw me through the darkness. I held my hand out to her, and she took it gladly. We didn't see Cere, so she must have landed in a different location. On BD-1's map, the fortress was just up ahead. I pointed in front of us to Luna, and she nodded.

I took the lead and began swimming north. Luna followed close behind as we swam past the glowing plants. There was a hole not too far from us, and I could see the bottom of the Inquisitor Fortress. I waved my arm, and Luna caught up so we could swim side-by-side. I felt her hand go into mine, and I looked to see her giving me a loving look. I felt my heart beat a few beats faster than usual. She was so pretty and kind. I felt safer swimming up to this giant underwater fortress. We both felt a change in the water temperature and noticed lava flowing down below. That had to be why it was so warm. It didn't matter much longer as we approached the building Cere marked on the map for us. Apparently, this building is used by divers when they have to make repairs on the outside of the fortress.

Once we made it to the underwater hatch, it opened, and I could see the surface inside. I motioned to Luna to surface quietly, and she gave me a thumbs up. I hit the surface slowly, and my hair dropped over my eyes. I brushed it back and set my eyes on the room. There was a small group of stormtroopers talking about hatch doors being sealed. Obviously, it's not the hatch door they're in charge of…

I took my breather out and exhaled. Luna did the same as I pulled myself out of the water. Here we go…

I Force pulled one of the troopers to me and then sent him flying into another one. They crashed into the wall and then went limp. As for the other two troopers, I reflected their blaster shots at them with my lightsaber, and the room went quiet. I heard Luna pulling herself out of the water with deep breaths. I know for a fact she hates it when we have to swim somewhere. Her hair gets wet, and I guess she doesn't like how it dries. I think she looked beautiful no matter what, but that's just me.

"Sorry, I kind of lagged behind there," she apologized.

"You're good! I just happened to be first," I told her with a chuckle, rubbing the back of my head. She looked around and seemed impressed.

"Didn't take you long, huh? That's got to be a new record, Cal!"

I smiled and had BD-1 record my time just as a joke. Luna and I still flirted with each other a lot, even though we were officially together now. I liked teasing or praising her, and I'm pretty sure she did too.

Cutting into our flirting, Cere's voice rose on our comms.

"Cal? Luna? You there?"

"Yeah, we're here. You make it inside safely?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I've located the holocron. I'm marking it on your map."

BD-1 brought up the map, and a pinpoint appeared inside the main building of the Inquisitor Fortress. That was where we needed to go.

"Thanks, Ce-..."

Cere's end of the comm turned off before I could finish thanking her.

"She seems really on edge," Luna said anxiously. I was thinking the same thing, but then I thought of her situation.

"I guess I don't blame her, given what she's gone through. She's got something to prove, and when Cere gets serious, she's serious."

Luna raised her eyebrows while nodding. Even her eyebrows are cute…

"We can't fall far behind. Let's keep going."

I had BD-1 unlock the door in front of us, and a huge hallway appeared. When I say huge, I mean astronomically long. It was covered in windows, so you could see the fish swimming outside in the ocean water. It was a cool room…other than the fact that it was filled with storm and purge troopers. I was dreaming if I thought this place wouldn't be guarded head to toe. I heard Luna gulp next to me, and I rubbed her arm gently. It was going to be okay. I didn't know how yet, but I was going to make sure we got out of here alive. The first Imperial enemy in front of us was a security droid. One of those tall bastards that beat the crap out of me that one time. On one hand, it hurt really bad…On the other, I got to spend time with Luna patching me up. This time, however, BD and I had a plan. I smirked and let BD do his thing.

"What's he doing?" Luna whispered as BD-1 jumped off my shoulder and rushed over to the security droid.

"Just something we've been working on," I said confidently. We watched as BD-1 jumped on the droid's back and hacked into him by plugging his conversion plug into his system.

"Oh!" Luna exclaimed. I chuckled quietly.

"Yep. I've been experimenting with certain parts I give BD, and I think we came up with the right recipe to hack into certain droids. I don't want another bruised face again…" I muttered in annoyance. Luna smiled and put her hand on my cheek.

"No matter how bruised, you'll always be perfect to me."

I grinned at her while she giggled at herself for how lovey-dovey that sounded.

"Likewise," I said as the security droid stood up straight and froze in place. BD-1 ran back to me, and I gave him a high five.

"Good job, buddy! Now we just sit back and watch…"

BD-1 programmed the droid to begin attacking the troopers in the massive hallway. The droid brought its fist back and punched the first trooper right into the wall. All of them were caught by surprise. The security droids have special armor that's more resistant to blaster bolts than the average droid, so the droid was wiping the floor with them. Each group of troopers that was wiped out was followed up by another. Every time the security droid moved up, we followed behind quietly, not wanting the troopers to notice us. I didn't expect the droid to last the entire hallway, but if it took out most of the troopers, that was good enough for me. We got near the end of the hallway before the security droid exploded from a purge trooper stabbing it with one of his electrified spears. The explosion caused the trooper to fall to the ground dead. That just left the end of the hallway and the room that it ended in.

"That worked out way better than I thought I would," I told Luna with a surprised look on my face.

"Better it than us," she said back happily, "now we just need to take these guys out."

I nodded, and we both ignited our lightsabers. The troopers that were left were so exhausted and shocked from the security droid's attack that they had no idea how to deal with us. We swooped in and took them out as soon as they noticed us running towards them. It went about as perfectly as it possibly could have.

I looked around the room and realized it was the control room for this part of the fortress.

"Okay, Cere wants us to destroy each part of the fortress, so how about we…"

I stopped and tried to think of something to do. Luna looked up at the ceiling, and you could literally see the lightbulb appear over her head.

"Let's try connecting this to this!" she said. On the ceiling was a backup generator that was used whenever the control desk lost power. You're not supposed to use it when the desk or whatever you're plugging it into already has power. There's a giant label on the front of it saying so. Luna proceeded to plug it into the control desk and then power it on by pressing the button on the desk. She and I jumped back just in case. In the distance where the main building of the fortress was, an explosion occurred before the control desk itself exploded. They must have been connected to each other.

"That…did something…" I said, not believing it worked. She hummed smugly as the comm from Cere came on.

"I saw what you just did. Good work. I disabled the shields on the exterior of the fortress. Flood the side base and then swim your way here. I'll meet you inside. Good luck."

The comm went off once she was done. Luna huffed at the thought of swimming again.

"Ugh, my hair just started getting dry!" she yelled. She laughed after and waved her hand at me. "...I'm just joking. I'm probably being really annoying whenever I complain like that."

I shook my head and smiled.

"Not to me. You can say whatever you want with me, Luna. I'm sure BD doesn't mind either."

BD-1 beeped and booped supportingly, and Luna smiled big at us.

"Thanks, guys. I can be as petty as I want! I'll try my best not to, though!" she said, pecking me on the lips. I'm hopelessly in love with this woman…As a Jedi, I never thought in a million years I would ever "be in love" with someone. I guess, in my mind, Luna's worth searching a million years for. Hypothetically, I mean. I'm only eighteen!

We headed outside into another hallway that was on the brink of caving in on itself. It was in the direction of the main building, so we needed to flood the hallway and then swim there like Cere had just told us.

"Breathers on," I said. I put the breather in my mouth and found a window that was cracked. I looked at Luna, and she nodded. Using the Force, I pulled the glass in, and water came rushing in. It was a little scary if I'm being honest. We soon flooded the entire building and were now completely underwater. That window flooded the entire way to the inner building which made me question the design of this stupid fortress. That's a serious flaw! We swam through various hallways, passing by floating stormtroopers who must have drowned. After a few minutes, we finally made it to the inner fortress. The water ran out at a set of stairs, and luckily there weren't any stormtroopers in the room ahead.

"Phew! We really flooded that thing!"

Luna shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey, that's what Cere wanted us to do!" she said as she squeezed the water out of her hair and put it in a ponytail.

"Well, since we're in the inner fortress now, we're probably going to get hit with hordes or troopers. Even more than what was in that hallway earlier. You ready?" I asked nervously. Her countenance was one of determination.

"I am if you are."

"Alright, here we go," I said as I opened the next door. As expected, there was a group of stormtroopers twiddling their thumbs. Did they not hear the multiple explosions that we caused? I swear, they're all idiots!

There were two levels to this room. On the bottom floor, there were four troopers with electric batons. On the top floor, there were two troopers with Gatling gun blasters that had shields on them. Loved those guys…

"I can take the top if you'll take the bottom," Luna whispered to me. I thought for a second before nodding.

"Yeah, let's do that. Call if you need help."

We both agreed on the plan and focused on our individual areas. Luna ran upstairs while I got the attention of the baton troopers.

"Hey! It's an intruder!" One of them yelled. They always seemed to have the same thing to say whenever they saw me. Now if they said, "Hey, it's that extremely handsome Jedi," I feel like that would be better!

I swung at the first guy, and my lightsaber cut right through him. The others circled me, and all swung at the same time. I blocked two of them, but one of them managed to hit me in the side.

"Ow!" I grunted, kicking the guy away from me and slicing the other two's legs off. They fell to the ground, and I ended them quickly so they wouldn't suffer. I brought my hand to my side and made some distance between me and the last hit felt like a huge shock of electricity going through my body, along with getting hit with a baton in the stomach. Nothing I couldn't handle, but it still hurt. I concentrated on my lightsaber and threw it at the trooper. The saber beheaded the trooper, and then I used the Force to bring it back to my hand. I looked up at the second floor to see Luna deflecting a barrage of blaster bolts. I darted up the stairs only to see Luna cartwheel behind the gunman and stab him in the back. Sometimes, I forget how nimble and flexible she can be. Her fighting style is very ballet-like.

"Good job! That last move was cool!"

She put her hands on her hips and grinned.

"Thanks! I didn't think it would work!"

I took my hand off my stomach so she wouldn't worry.

"One room down. On to the next."

Next to us was a control desk. We walked over to it and saw a big training room where two purge troopers were practicing with one another. In the middle of the room was an abyss that led into lava. This training room was pretty cutthroat!

Luna leaned on my back and over my shoulder flirtatiously.

"It would be a shame if someone fell into that, don't you think?"

BD-1 let out what resembled a robotic giggle, and I snorted.

"Yeah, it would," I said as I unlocked the door to the training room. Going downstairs, we entered the room, and both the purge troopers stared at us, dumbfounded. We just stood at the entrance of the room and waited for them to come to us. As soon as they ran past the lava pit, I took a deep breath, and Force pushed them backward.

"Ahhhhhh!"

They both fell down the abyss, but it wasn't long before a whole new set of troops came rushing in.

"You take left, I'll get right!" I yelled at Luna. I saw a flash of green from her lightsaber, and one of the troopers on her side fell to the floor. There had to be at least twenty guys attacking us. I tried using some of the Jedi abilities that were best with crowd control. I threw my lightsaber, I pushed guys into the lava, I pulled troopers to my hand and used him as a shield. I was pulling out all the stops! I always kept my eye on Luna just in case she was having trouble on her end. All I could see was that she was flipping and twirling, and those troopers didn't know what to do!

"Shit!" I felt myself being picked up from behind, and it was another security droid.

Here we go…

He punched me in the face and then tossed me at the wall. I cringed from the sting I felt on my cheek but tried not to think about it. Instead of hitting the wall, I flipped myself so that I could land on my feet on the wall and then bounce myself back at the security droid. I slid and sliced through the droid's legs, causing it to fall over from imbalance.

"Argh!"

I heard Luna cry out from being hit by a purge trooper's staff, and I felt rage build up into my chest.

"No!"

I sprinted to Luna's side of the training room and sliced right through the trooper's midsection before he could even react. His body fell into two halves in front of me. I felt Luna's hands on my back, and I darted my eyes at her.

"It's okay, Cal. I'm fine," she reassured me. Her eyes were slightly glossy. It kills me to see her like that.

"You sure? Do you need a healing stim?" I asked quickly.

She smiled and shook her head.

"I'm good! Promise!"

She wiped her eyes and patted her arm where she got hit.

"...I'm tough, remember?"

I calmed down after seeing her brighten up.

"Y-Yeah," I answered, a chuckle of relief escaping my lips. I watched her narrow her eyes and frown before bringing her hand to my cheek.

"Security droid?"

"Security droid…" I said back to her with an eye roll. She shook her head and giggled.

"Those things do not like you, Cal."

"I'm aware," I joked. I looked to the other side of the room, and there were only a couple more troopers who were keeping their distance from us. Luna and I were both dripping with sweat, and bodies of dead troopers littered the floor. It was insane how many troopers ran in here to fight us. It had to be the most enemies we've ever faced at one time. A close second was when I was trapped in Sorc Tormo's death arena. I looked at Luna, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

Let's finish this.

We ran at the remaining troopers and stabbed them in the chest with our lightsabers. I felt the resistance of the saber going through their skin, and then they were gone. I thought it was over, but two more regular-looking stormtroopers ran in with rocket launchers in their hands.

"Oh, come on!" Luna and I both yelled out. We had had enough of these Imperial bastards.

The best way to deal with a rocket launcher is to use it against itself. Once we saw the troopers shoot a rocket at us, we used the Force to send it back at them, creating a huge explosion. Body parts went flying, and I lifted the poncho I was wearing in front of Luna so nothing would get on her.

"Not the poncho!" she screamed.

The way she yelled it made me laugh so hard! After that hit to the stomach by the electric baton, it hurt a lot to laugh.

"Yes, the poncho!" I screamed back at her. She loves it, I know she does. Dropping the poncho, I glanced at BD-1 and decided to stop being stubborn.

"...Alright, BD, can you give me a healing stim?"

BD-1 shot the stim out from the top of his head, and I caught it with my right hand. I stabbed it into my side and felt the cool relief rush in. I exhaled deeply and even felt my cheek start to feel better.

"I guess I'll take one too," Luna said after seeing how much better I felt from taking one. She stabbed it into her arm and sighed.

"Much better…"

I smiled and gave her a hug. I was glad we both survived that. We weren't in the clear yet, but that was a lot of troops. Moving on to the door finally, we opened it and walked into a prison block with a lot of red laser-gated cells surrounding us. I couldn't see who was in any of the prison cells because more stormtroopers were scattered throughout the multi-leveled room.

"It's them! The Jedi!" one of them yelled at us.

"Get ready!" I yelled out as all the stormtroopers shot their blasters at us. I felt sweat drip down my face as my eyes moved left and right trying to track all the blaster bolts being shot at me. I reflected all of them back while Luna did the same. My hands felt as if I had been writing with them non-stop for hours. My wrists were on fire from reflecting all the shots back at the stormtrooper.

"This is getting real old real fast!" Luna screamed at me as she reflected the last shot back at the last trooper. The room fell silent except for our heavy breathing.

"At least it's over now…" I said. As soon as I finished the sentence, Cere came on our comms again saying she was near our position and stuck behind a locked door.

"Look for a console near you," she instructed us. I was starting to get tired from everything we've done so far. Usually, I can go a while before breaking a sweat, but it feels like we've taken out a whole army of troopers so far while we've been in this fortress. Looking over at Luna, I could tell she was feeling the same thing. Looking around, I saw a console near us and walked over to it. In front of the console was a window with the locked door Cere was probably talking about. I unlocked the door, and she came running in as purge troopers came in from the other side of the room she was in. Luna and I watched as she used both her blaster and her lightsaber to take out the troopers. It was honestly pretty impressive. I might have to adopt that blaster style when I have time!

"Wow, Cere, that was amazing!" Luna praised her. She waved her hand at her.

"Don't mention it. The only thing I'm focused on is getting the holocron. Though, it does feel good destroying this place."

I frowned.

"Sorry, we had to come back to this place."

"We didn't have much of a choice did we?" she said back to me. She had a point.

"True. Any sign of Trilla?"

She shook her head.

"No, not yet. The holocron is being held in the interrogation room which is the most secure room in the fortress. I'm able to open the path to the room so head there as fast as you can. I'll distract other forces as long as I can while you two get the holocron!" she said, unlocking one of the doors for us and running out of view. You can tell she was beyond stressed. She was forcing herself to keep going constantly so she wouldn't have to think about it.

We walked to the door she unlocked, and it was different from any room we've been in so far. It was a big room with multiple gaps in the flooring. It took me a second to realize what was in the room.

"Wow, this room is gigantic!" Luna exclaimed with widened eyes.

"I think the whole thing is a turbolift, which might help us get out of here once we get the holocron. Is there a console somewhere around here? Oh, here's one."

I walked over to the console and started inputting the settings for the turbo-lift bridge to extend over the gaps in the flooring. Luna laughed nervously next to me and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm glad you know how to do all this stuff because I don't."

I looked at her with a growing smile.

"What? Really? Luna, I'm pretty sure I've seen you work your way through consoles like this!"

She shrugged.

"I mean…I kind of know what I'm doing, but most of the time I just wing it. I usually don't have to do that anymore since I have you around!"

"Oh, yeah?" I asked with a chuckle, pressing the final button to extend the turbo-lift bridge for us across the room.

"Yep! I have you around for other things too!" she added, "but don't ask me what they are because that's a secret."

"Ha, okay, fine. I won't make you list everything since I know the list would be way too long!"

We started walking on the bridge that led to the interrogation room, and a knot in my stomach started to form. Luna was still laughing to herself when I turned to look at her.

"Luna…Thanks for being with me through everything…"

She stopped laughing, and the green in her eyes brightened like they always did when she was happy. She placed her hand on my arm.

"Oh, Cal. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I don't know what my life would be if you didn't show up at the diner. It's like…I didn't just make a best friend, I made a…"

She stopped and blushed deeply.

"...Well, you know," she finished. I grinned and gave her a hug as we walked.

"You're adorable when you blush," I teased. She turned and kissed me on the lips before smirking.

"So do you."

I could feel the heat in my cheeks as soon as she kissed me. Okay, she got me there.

"...But seriously, thanks for being with me too, Cal. Having you around makes everything better. And we can't forget BD-1!" she said, petting the top of the little robot's head. He beeped back at her in delight. I did the same and smiled.

"We'd never forget you, buddy. You've been with us through thick and thin."

He leaned into my hand, which was pretty cute. We reached the end of the bridge and stood in front of the interrogation room door. If the holocron was in there, you know who was probably in there as well. I looked at Luna, and she knew exactly what I was thinking.

"Together?"

I nodded.

"Yeah."

We kissed one last time before I opened the door. The first thing I saw was an interrogation chair. The same chair that Trilla and Cere were put in before going through multiple hours of torture by the Empire. My eyes led themselves to the right of the chair, and I gripped my lightsaber a little tighter than usual upon seeing who was beside it. This had to be our last confrontation with her. The person who's been hunting us since the very beginning.

Trilla.

And that is the end of the chapter! I wanted to do Cal's POV to change it up a little bit. This chapter definitely came out quicker than the last one, and I'll immediately get started on the next one! The next chapter IS NOT the last chapter even though it's the end of the game! Please review or comment on the chapter and let me know what you think! Finally, thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you guys next time!