COMMANDER JERJERROD
He should have sensed that something like this would happen. It was still much too early in his training to call himself attuned on any scale, but since Commander Skywalker was teaching him specifically how to use his gifts with the Force that seemed focused on his emotional connection with those he cared for most, he should have been able to sense Veers's betrayal earlier than he had. It had taken him sensing unease within Piett to make the connection to Veers and see that the general had put out a distress call and marked their location for Imperial forces to ambush the rebels.
His mind had been elsewhere since the night before, drawn into a distracted state by the presence of some ominous thing that had come to him twice in his dreams. He first had felt it following the news that he was to not allow himself to be taken captive and returned alive to Vader. Such news had left his thoughts clouded and worrisome, which made it nearly impossible to clear his head before he slept that night and he had been plagued by an ever-growing shadow that he could not see, hear, or touch, but knew was there all the same. As Commander Skywalker had instructed, he attempted to invite in positivity to replace this sinister dream, but it seemed that he had tried to escape the shadow all night, for when he awoke, it was to feel drained as if he had been running through the night instead of sleeping, which put him in a bit of a foul mood to have to slog through the forest for two hours, but he couldn't very well decline on account of needing to take a nap.
Already once before he had learned the consequences of keeping such strange feelings to himself and so he had dropped to the back of the procession to consult with the Jedi on what this dream could mean or if perhaps Commander Skywalker also felt a disturbance. It was little relief to hear that while Commander Skywalker sensed something was amiss, he was not being chased by this shadow as Jerjerrod was.
When he was not put into the rotation for guard duty later that day, he knew he had the Jedi to thank for it who was inviting him to bed down early to try and get more rest, but it was easier said than done as he watched Motti and Piett head out into the trees on their own. Worry over them and what sort of likely problems they would encounter kept him on the verge of sleep as he lay in the shade of the vast canopy above. Just when he thought he might finally be able to drift off, one of the teams would report in and he would sit up in anticipation of bad news, only to find that still, his friends had not yet run afoul of anything or anyone. This routine continued until they returned from their first shift and only when the two of them gave weary nods to Jerjerrod and collapsed on their bedrolls did he finally allow himself to sleep.
Once again he was moving in his dream, trying to outdistance whatever it was that followed him, but he could feel it sucking him back in even as he dug his heels in and fought the pull of whatever it was. The back of his neck would not stop prickling and he searched for some place to hide, something with which to conceal himself, but he existed on a plane with nothing but himself. The lucid part of his brain tried to wake himself to escape this befuddling and draining dream, but fear rooted him here and he knew he could not leave until the threat was revealed, so despite how very much he did not want to come face to face with whatever was after him, he knew he had to.
Every day for a small amount of time, Commander Skywalker had been sitting with him in a state of meditation to teach him how to clear his mind, how to counter the uncertainty that festered when the dark side was trying to make its way in, and he had been putting forth as much effort as he could to at least do well during these sessions since he had been a spectacular failure for the most part in his physical training. He tried to use this technique now as he recalled every word of advice the Jedi had given him in how to remain strong and rooted in his morals and beliefs. The moment he doubted himself, he was inviting the dark side to whisper in his ear and cause those doubts to grow larger.
In this dreamscape, he came to a halt, turned on the spot, and remembered who it was that he was fighting for. What was his purpose in allowing the Force to come to him, in rallying behind the rebels to take down the Empire? He had two friends who were relying on him, or so he told himself. In reality, they didn't need him as much as he needed them, but in this universe of having so few worldly possessions, they were his reason for being alive, the only family he had, the only people who knew his struggle and could relate. They had come into this existence together as boys and had come out the other end as men and somewhere along the way they had established that they were all they had.
For them, he faced the shadow and as he did so, he found himself standing in a glowing beam of red, but instead of emitting heat, it doused him in a frigid shower of ice. An oily, crackling voice cackled in triumph, and not only had Jerjerrod heard this voice inside Motti's head before, but he had heard it in person through a hologram during Motti's trial.
"I see you, Tiaan."
Confronting the shadow had been a mistake because now he had revealed himself to the Sith as a Force-sensitive being who was openly opposing the Empire. He had worked so hard to shield his mind, but in facing his fear, he had allowed the Sith to find him and now that they knew he was alive and that he was becoming the very threat they sought to eradicate, they would be coming for him. They would comb every inch of Endor to find him or better yet, they would destroy the entire moon once the rebels were wiped out and they no longer needed the shield bunker to protect the Death Star.
Being taken alive was not an option. Allowing himself to be tortured, questioned, and manipulated by the Sith was not an option, but all was now possible that they had seen him. He had nowhere to run and no way off of the moon, so they would pursue him until they found him–unless he took affirmative action to prevent that.
"You cannot hide. You cannot hide them from me."
Jerjerrod took a step back as pain shot through his chest almost as if he had been run through with something that targeted his heart. The Sith knew his heart, knew his deepest fears, knew the affection that he held for his friends, and was seeking to exploit him by targeting them. He could not allow them to be used against him. He had to shield them as best he could, but the longer he remained connected to this dream, the easier it was for the Sith to peruse through his thoughts and feelings.
Wake up, he told himself. Close your mind; don't think of them. Focus only on waking up.
In what he could only describe as an extraction as if he were physically peeling himself off of a sticky surface, he removed himself from his dream. Cold sweat dribbled between his shoulder blades as he sat up off of his bedroll to find that Motti and Piett were once again gone on their shift. He found Commander Skywalker sitting at a fire near the edge of camp and confided his dream in the Jedi who only had more devastating news to share in what he interpreted Jerjerrod's dream to mean.
He had said, "The Emperor knows what your friends mean to you and will use them against you to his advantage. He knows you won't abandon them or fight with us if he has them, so now he'll be coming for them, not you. If he were to get you, you wouldn't hesitate to take your own life to prevent him from toying with you, but if he captures the admirals, he knows you will give yourself up for them. Your main priority now should be to prevent that from happening however you can, and I'll do my best to help you."
Not thirty minutes later, the call came in on their comlink that Motti and Piett had set off an Ewok trap and needed to be rescued. This was the sort of mischief Jerjerrod had expected from them, but being caught in a trap now that it was imperative to keep them safe meant that he had to go along with Commander Skywalker to get them down. That near hour of hurrying through the forest to reach them was a blur, as was the exact moment he and Commander Skywalker had found the princess and her rotation partner. He only recalled when he finally arrived on site, seeing Piett caked in mud and flat on his back with what appeared to be a knife in his throat and the horrible feeling of not making it in time to save his friend. Even if he was too late, he knew that it fell to him to kill that trooper who may have already taken Piett's life and so without permission from the Jedi, he sprinted forward with the lightsaber springing to life in his hand as he released it from his belt and then he was driving it into the back of the trooper's helmet.
Seeing Piett alive after, though with a small wound on his neck, it told Jerjerrod that he had only just arrived in time and it was his desperation that had spurred his actions, nothing else. He had taken a life to save another, which was the least damnable reason to do so, as it had been when he made the split-second decision to shoot Needa in the head. Unlike how very hollow he had felt after that death, he now felt tingling at his fingertips and burning in his gut, a sensation that was new to him and that he didn't care for in the slightest because it bordered on a lust for more, which was something he was familiar with after his first kill. He did not want to see that side of himself that had put in an appearance when he had been influenced by the dark side.
But how was it possible to not dwell on death every time it happened and he was responsible for it? How could someone like Veers, like all of Veers's men, like nearly every soldier on this moon, just go about their lives knowing that they had ended a life? Time did not stand still solely for one man to allow him time to contemplate what he had done, and the fact that Jerjerrod was having such a difficult time focusing in the aftermath of his kills told him quite plainly that he did not have the makings of any sort of renowned combat leader. He had chosen well in becoming an Imperial fleet officer because he would have flunked out of combat school in an instant.
Piett was there to call him away before he could start to do something foolish like linger on his actions, but since their walk back to camp was uneventful and quiet, the respite from Jerjerrod's own mind did not last and so he was still lost in his own thoughts and regretting his actions when they came back to the clearing. He had had to dislodge himself from those thoughts to consider that while everyone else was gazing skyward in anticipation of the expected airlift, Piett was watching Veers who in turn was looking right back with a stony smugness.
Jerjerrod had somehow managed to block out all emotions but his own and in doing so, he had not been aware of what was now so obvious as he felt both a rush of hatred from Veers and the drop in the stomach that signified experiencing some form of grief that he felt coming from Piett. And when Jerjerrod saw the device in Veers's bound hands, he had no hesitation as he grabbed Motti by the front of his poncho and dragged him back toward the trees they just emerged from with Commander Skywalker, Princess Leia, and General Solo hot on their heels. Only when he realized Piett was not with them did he skid to a halt and holler for the admiral, urging him to let go of the last emotional attachment he had to their one-time friend.
The forest around them came alive with shouts, mechanical crashes, and blaster fire. Trees splintered and fell to the forest floor as AT-ST walkers downed them in hot pursuit of the rebels who had scattered in every direction. Even if Jerjerrod tried to close his eyes against the brilliant flashes of red, green, and yellow around him, he could still see the lights through his eyelids. The forest might as well have been lit up in fireworks for how colorful it had become with rebels and Imperials haphazardly shooting at each other and hoping to land a blow.
Commander Skywalker had his lightsaber out to deflect any shots that came their way, as his reflexes and anticipation of which direction the shots were coming from were far superior to anyone else's, but Jerjerrod did not trust himself to be able to provide the same assistance and was certain he might accidentally cut off someone's limb in the process, so he kept his grip latched to his belt and his head down. In the chaos, General Solo was attempting to raise backup on his comlink, but any help would be at least two hours away on foot and any of their limited available ships that might be able to provide cover fire ran the risk of being shot out of the sky.
Before too long, Piett was starting to slow down with the injury to his ankle and sprinting at a breakneck speed through the forest through treacherous terrain was already a precarious situation without having troopers in hot pursuit added to the mix, so Jerjerrod called the others to slow down for him, though they did not dare stop. Slowing down meant they could hear better without the sounds of their own movement through the foliage and in doing so, they heard something gigantic lumbering toward them. As the sounds of metal creaking grew louder, they disguised the much quieter sounds of a branch nearby snapping.
The only ones who did not sense the danger were Piett and General Solo and so with the Jedi grabbing the general as they dived left, both Jerjerrod and the princess latched onto Piett to drag him right with Motti following Jerjerrod just as an explosion of blaster fire incinerated the bush they all had been standing around. Jerjerrod's party fell right into a downward slope that sent them tumbling over, under, and around each other for several dizzying seconds until they landed in a pile on top of one another at the bottom with several cuts and scrapes on their faces and hands.
Jerjerrod was unlucky enough to end up on the bottom of that pile with Piett's elbow in his groin, the princess's knee in his stomach, and Motti's entire torso over his face. He beat at Motti insistently to make him get off so he could breathe and as Motti rolled off, he held a hand to his nose which was once again running a red waterfall from both nostrils. It seemed that he was destined to re-break his nose for all of eternity and he swore as he stood up with his hands clasped over it to staunch the bleeding. Though he could not relate, Jerjerrod understood that it had to be an exasperating process in constantly having blood pour out of one's nose and having to endure the headache that came after as well as the bruising and swelling around the eyes and the tenderness to do anything so simple as taking a sniff.
He could offer no condolences to Motti, however, so he let the admiral clamp his hands over his mouth and give a muffled scream of aggravation. On the ground beside Motti, Piett was testing his ankle's dexterity and examining it for signs of further injury, but judging by the way in which Piett's shoulders hunched, it was not good news.
"Han, do you copy?" said the princess into her comlink, but of course there was no answer. She stood up and leaned forward to look as far up the slope as possible as if expecting to see the general and Commander Skywalker waiting for them at the top. "Han, Luke, do you copy?"
They waited ten seconds for possible static interference to clear or some other message to come through, but they heard nothing.
"We only fell down a mountain. They had plenty of time to die while we were falling," said Motti sarcastically before speaking into his own comlink. "General Solo, unless you're dead, you or the Jedi had best respond now." When the other side remained silent, Motti cupped his hands around his mouth in preparation to yell up the slope and hope the other two could hear him when the princess caught his wrist, yanked him down, and motioned that Jerjerrod and Piett should do the same.
Jerjerrod was already dropping as he turned his head to see several white sets of armor a couple dozen yards off, but heading their way. The waist-height vegetation that grew here concealed them from a distance, but they would be highly visible if the troopers got within ten feet of them as the torso-sized leaves swayed in the breeze.
"How many are there?" asked Princess Leia.
"I thought I counted seven," said Jerjerrod.
Lifting his head just high enough to try and get a more accurate count, Piett held the position for about four seconds and then dropped down with a grimace. "More than five, less than ten, but more than we can deal with, especially with at least two of us being horrible fighters and two of us being too physically small to attempt close combat. They're fanning out and if we don't move, one of them is going to walk right into us."
"But if we do move, they'll shoot at the first thing they see," said Motti in a harsh whisper.
"I'll draw their fire and once I do, the rest of you run," said Piett in an act of nobility that Jerjerrod was not tolerating this day or any other day.
He shut Piett's suggestion down firmly. "That is not an option, especially not on that ankle. If anyone were to stay behind to draw them off, it would be me, but we aren't so desperate as to need to resort to that tactic right now."
"If I ignore the pain, I'm still the fastest of us four; I stand the best chance of getting away and they won't be able to pick me out clearly since I barely come above the bushes. I'll be quick about it and double back to you once I get far enough ahead."
"Like hell you will," said Motti stoutly. "Toss that thermal detonator and then we all run for it."
"One detonator won't be enough to distract them for long–"
"Leaving you behind is not an option, Firmus, and you'd best shut up about it, or I'll knock you out and carry you over my shoulder."
"We need to decide now," said the princess urgently. "Do we fight, do we stay and hope they don't see us, or do we run?"
Jerjerrod held out his hand for Piett's detonator and showed them all three fingers to signify the countdown. At one, he pressed the side button to activate the explosive and launched it toward the nearest trooper before turning and churning up mud as he made a mad dash for it. He heard the grenade detonate, but didn't know or care if he had killed one of the troopers in the process. He pushed Princess Leia ahead of him and felt Motti brush shoulders with him, but when he could not sense Piett within close proximity, he whirled around to see that Piett had broken left instead and that the troopers' gaze had been drawn to him. A cry of terror was making its way up Jerjerrod's throat, but he clapped his hands over his mouth to remain silent for Piett's sacrifice.
One trooper hefted a giant rifle onto his shoulder and fired, expelling something large and webbed from the rifle's massive barrel. The netting cut through the air and unraveled at warp speed until it made contact with Piett from behind. It ensnared the admiral in a hopeless knot that constricted and confined him, for every movement caused it to tighten more around him and with his arms pinned to his chest, he could not access his weapons to shoot at the troopers or cut himself free.
Go! Piett hollered, except Jerjerrod realized he had heard the voice in his head. Piett was warning him while trying to hide the fact that Jerjerrod, Motti, and the princess were nearby since the troopers had not yet seen them.
Jerjerrod took half a step toward him with his hand on his lightsaber grip, ready to bring it to life and cut through as many troopers as he needed to get to Piett, but he was too inexperienced and he could not put Motti and the princess into that situation to have to fight alongside him if they weren't ready. His only option was to have them keep running while he went back for Piett because it would be a cold day on Tatooine before he let the Sith get a hold of either of his friends.
Piett was struggling in the netting and straining to keep his thoughts calm, but as he saw Jerjerrod preparing to fight, Jerjerrod heard the officer and not the defector order, Don't you dare. You won't win and you know it. Fall back.
Jerjerrod adamantly shook his head, but then Piett's voice faltered, catching as his fear began rising and his desperation cut through his false bravado. Please, Tiaan, go now!
Motti's hand closed around Jerjerrod's shoulder. Even if Motti could not hear Piett as Jerjerrod could, he most definitely could sense that this was farewell, and Jerjerrod felt the pain behind that grip, the hurt and the indecision to want to run back for Piett but the understanding that this was a sacrifice he could not interfere with.
The troopers gathered around Piett and blocked him from view and as they did, Jerjerrod heard one last plea from Piett before his presence in Jerjerrod's mind went dark. Jerjerrod bit down on his knuckle in fear that he had just witnessed Piett's last few moments of life, but he still felt Piett's life force existing somewhere close by. Whatever the troopers had done to him, it had rendered him unconscious and now there was nothing to stop Jerjerrod from going back for him.
"Don't," whispered the princess at his side as if she could sense his intentions.
"We have to go," said Motti, though his voice was punctured with emotion and it was more of a command to himself rather than to Jerjerrod.
Jerjerrod was loath to move, rooted in place with the need to go forward and test his limits with the troopers, but the only part of him that thought he might be able to make a difference was his desperation. He accepted that he could do nothing and that he had to hand Piett over to fate, however much it pained him to do so.
His heart and lungs were in tatters as he forced himself to move away in a bent double position to keep himself concealed in case the troopers happened to turn around. At any moment he expected his body to stop working as he felt this gut-wrenching loss for a death that had not yet happened. It would have been easier if it had happened because then at least he would know that it had not been his fault and that no harm could come to Piett on his account. Knowing Piett was alive and headed for brutal torture but being unable to spare him from that was cruel.
Ahead of him, Motti was leading without any real sense of direction while the princess continued to try her comlink to no avail until Motti suggested that perhaps the Imperials were jamming all nearby rebel signals to prevent them from contacting one another. While it was a plausible reason for the radio silence, it hardly did anything to lift their spirits once they realized they were on their own.
Princess Leia took out her frustrations by kicking out at a tree trunk and then tinkering about with her comlink further to try and boost the signal. Jerjerrod was having trouble focusing or sharing in her vexation, as his mind was still trying unsuccessfully to let go of Piett, but while Motti was concentrating on staying out of the princess's line of fire, Jerjerrod was subconsciously moving toward her not entirely by his own doing. When he was less than three feet from her, a shooting tingling sensation in his stomach spurred him to action.
"Leia, back!" he cried. He activated his blade and shoved it forward to deflect the shot meant to take out the princess between the eyes and directed it back from whence it came to cut down the trooper who had fired it. From the same direction emerged some six more troopers and at the sight of what appeared to them to be a Jedi, they all directed their blasters at Jerjerrod whose first and immediate thought was something along the lines of, Well, shit.
Motti reacted first by firing off two shots, one of which felled one trooper and passed through another's arm while his second shot narrowly passed between two more troopers. In a crackle of electricity, Motti's riot baton sprang to life and he shifted it up to absorb a collection of blasts from the troopers' weapons. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Jerjerrod in an open invitation for the troopers to close the distance and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Leia dropped back behind him whilst leaning around him to continue firing her own blaster, which left Jerjerrod to take on whatever else came his way.
He had only ever fought one opponent at a time, but two troopers rushed him while two more went for Motti and the fifth and sixth closed in on Leia who managed to shoot one in the face. Jerjerrod could not continue to watch how his companions fared as he swung an overhead arc and brought his lightsaber down where a trooper had been standing just seconds before. As he exposed his back to the second trooper, he sensed the man activate the beam bayonet attachment at the end of his blaster rifle and attempt to stab Jerjerrod in the spine with it. Jerjerrod rotated his blade around to catch the bayonet behind him and could feel the impact as the beams met even though he could not see it. He then lunged forward with one leg, and dropping the lightsaber grip into one hand, brandished the blade in a wide cut that caught the first trooper off guard and severed his head from the rest of his body. As the white helmet dropped, Jerjerrod wheeled back around to duel the second trooper.
Over the trooper's shoulder, he could see identical riot blades clashing with each other as Motti and his adversary engaged in a positively vicious head-to-head. Motti took a knee to the stomach and as it laid him flat, his opponent brought his own baton in an overhead arch to either deliver a powerful enough shock to char Motti's tunic through or to attempt to slice his head off with blunt and electric force. Jerjerrod brought his leg up and kicked his opponent's chest with enough power to send him stumbling back and as the space between Jerjerrod and Motti opened up, he hurled his lightsaber into the descending baton's path with no other thought than to block the blow. The purple light cut a revolving beam as it twirled like a boomerang through the air and then made contact with the trooper's baton just as the neon blue sparks were about to come down on Motti. The recoil from colliding with Jerjerrod's lightsaber made the trooper falter just long enough for Motti to roll aside and as he leaped to his feet to resume the fight, Jerjerrod's lightsaber returned to his hand even though he certainly had not consciously summoned it.
He had never before attempted to call an object to him and had only succeeded in doing so unintentionally before Vader had made him aware of his powers. The only visible manner in which he had been able to use the Force was to banish objects or people and push them back from him, so this was entirely new territory and he was unprepared for the Force to interact in such cohesion with him. The trooper he had kicked aside was back up and ready to fight in full fury, so Jerjerrod brought his blade perpendicular to his body to deflect the trooper's bayonet blow and then pushed him back until he collided with Motti's trooper.
Both soldiers went down in a tangle of their own limbs and then Jerjerrod and Motti both struck the final blow: Jerjerrod by skewering his trooper through the gut and Motti by switching back to his blaster to put a hole in his trooper's skull.
Before either of them could turn to run to Leia's aid, Jerjerrod experienced time at a quarter speed, seeing a bright red shot exit the barrel of a blaster rifle aimed straight at Motti's back. Jerjerrod knew exactly where that shot was going to end up, how much blood there would be, how many seconds it would take for Motti to drown in his own blood and die, and he had to alter that future. Still moving and feeling as if time was slowing down just for him to make this costly decision, Jerjerrod took hold of Motti and pivoted, hauling him bodily aside as the blaster shot burned its way into his side with white-hot energy. At the same time that he choked down a cry of pain, he shoved his lightsaber into Motti's hands and though he had never before wielded it, Motti did a rather impressive act by deciding to forego any technique and just launch the thing at the trooper where it buried itself up to the hilt in the trooper's chest.
Once Jerjerrod assured Motti that he was in no immediate danger, Motti hurried over to retrieve the blade while calling for Leia and when she didn't answer, he whirled around to see that three more troopers had come to the sounds of battle and now held the princess at blaster point with a warning to surrender immediately or they would execute her in front of Jerjerrod and Motti.
On his knees, bleeding, and still fighting back the whimper that longed to escape him from biting back his pain, Jerjerrod opened his mind to both Motti and Leia, waiting and hoping to hear an idea. Motti lifted the lightsaber straight up into the air and as the troopers' gazes followed it, he splayed out his left hand for Jerjerrod to see, telling him to use the Force in the way he had first used it against Motti.
Jerjerrod wanted to doubt his capabilities, but one second of doubt would surely mean failure and after Piett, he could not fail again. Screaming internally at the effort it would cost him and the stretch he felt as his wound opened further, he cast out his right arm and called upon the Force to burrow forward as an unstoppable energy. He could almost see the shock wave as all three troopers and Leia went flying backward, then Motti was running forward. He turned just for a moment to throw the lightsaber back at Jerjerrod while reactivating his baton before the troopers could regain their feet.
Leia was brawling with one trooper, Motti had taken a dive onto another, and the third was coming in a full-on sprint straight for Jerjerrod who was still trying to pick up the grip from where it had landed a few feet short of him. He had no time to re-arm himself as the trooper closed the distance between the two of them and launched himself forward with his fist raised to clout Jerjerrod in the side of the head. Stepping aside with a hair's breadth between his head and the trooper's knuckles, Jerjerrod sank into a defensive crouch with no intent but to keep the trooper from getting him down in the mud. His opponent was just as determined as he was, for his helmet had been knocked off when Jerjerrod sent him flying and there was unhinged abandon in this man's eyes.
Grappling for the upper hand, Jerjerrod could not let his guard down for even a moment or risk losing this battle, but his side was on fire and he already had a weak stance from trying to not expose his injury to his opponent. Unluckily, the trooper inevitably saw what surely had to be an excessive amount of blood soaking through his tunic and in one of the more brutal and barbaric acts he had seen from these already savage soldiers, the trooper sprang forward to grab Jerjerrod's right arm and simultaneously dig the knuckles of his other hand into Jerjerrod's wound, shoving them in as far as they would go with the intent to rip through the blaster hole and enlarge it.
The sound that came from Jerjerrod's throat was garbled and desperate. His left hand formed a claw and with a ferociousness that only came from a man pleading for the pain to stop, he sank his fingers into the trooper's face, tearing with his nails at all points of contact. He felt skin opening up underneath his fingernails, felt blood gushing as he tore through one of the trooper's eyes and as the trooper shrieked, his hand left Jerjerrod's wound.
Two blaster reports and the trooper collapsed in place. Jerjerrod went to one knee, clutching his wound and gasping for breath as he fought back tears of agony. His mind pieced together that he had seen Leia shoot the trooper, or at least that she had had something to do with it since she was standing several feet away but still directly behind where the trooper had stood.
Holding a hand to her head, Leia then turned to where the last trooper was sprawled on top of Motti from behind to pin him to the ground and had Motti by the bansg, trying to shove his head down onto his own activated baton. Though not initially lethal, if the baton's electricity made contact with Motti's face, it would surely melt his skin or worse. Motti was putting forth every effort to hold his head up, but he was still about to lose this fight. Spittle flew from Motti's mouth with the struggle to protect his face and in an attempt to distract him long enough to land the decisive blow, the trooper punched him in the ribs. Motti let out a yelp like a beaten animal, a sound Jerjerrod had heard from him before.
Leia was lining up her sights, but she couldn't guarantee a clean shot when Motti and the trooper were so close together that it was impossible to tell exactly who was who from this distance.
Jerjerrod, on the other hand, could see both Motti and the trooper as if only they existed before him with nothing else to be seen: no forest, no ground, no sky. It gave Jerjerrod a clear view of the trooper and what he intended to do to the man who had triggered the repetition of that horrible sound that had spurred Jerjerrod to action once before. The last man who had caused Motti enough pain to wail like that had suffered unforgiving consequences, as this man was about to. Jerjerrod envisioned his own hand reaching between the trooper and Motti to pull the trooper off of Motti. He extended his fingertips, reaching forward and seeing a deep, dark red energy glowing at his palm as it came into contact with the trooper's throat despite how far away Jerjerrod still was from the duo. His fingers curled around the trooper's neck and somehow, they were larger and stronger than he remembered them being. Flexing his fist, he felt the trooper's throat swell in protest, felt the life essence throbbing just behind his thumb as he squeezed with the intent to crush the trooper's windpipe.
The trooper's legs kicked in protest, he began to writhe and flail, struggling to free himself from a force he could not see. He released Motti as both of his hands went to his throat and tried to claw away the hand only his throat could feel, but that his own hands did not come into contact with. Jerjerrod could see veins throbbing in his hand as he squeezed tighter and that same sensation of wanting more returned to his gut. It was not enough to throttle this man; he needed the trooper to suffer more severely.
"Let him go, Tiaan," Motti's voice choked through the vacuum.
Of all people, Motti was the only person alive who knew what it meant to be strangled by the Force and he could harvest sympathy for anyone else who was subjected to it. For him to ask for mercy for this soldier who had so adamantly attempted to kill him, it spoke volumes of Motti's fear of this power that he refused to recognize as his own.
"Tiaan…"
Kill him. Give in to the hatred.
Motti called for him to stop as if from the other side of a tunnel where his voice rebounded on itself, but could no longer be heard clearly.
But Jerjerrod could not stop, and made the executive decision to not stop, no matter how Motti reacted to it. He hardly needed much more effort than he was already exerting to tighten and then close his fist and feel the trooper's throat cave in. Though he had not seen the eyes bulge, he imagined that underneath the helmet, the trooper may be bleeding from his tear ducts as his last few moments of life quickly faded out of existence. Jerjerrod felt his soul linger for a fraction of a second and then it was gone and he, Jerjerrod, had been responsible and aware of his every action to lead to such a violent conclusion.
In the aftermath of his first kill, Motti had not seen Jerjerrod deliver the mortal blow. Motti had not seen the look on Jerjerrod's face and it was this small saving grace that had allowed Jerjerrod to deny that savage part of him, that untamable beast that manifested itself as the call of the dark side. Now, there was nowhere to hide as Motti came to where Jerjerrod knelt and the two of them exchanged long, penetrating stares during which Jerjerrod for once was on the defense in trying to block out the accusatory thoughts Motti was projecting at him.
Jerjerrod did not have the patience to deal with an argument right now when he knew that he had been in the right for dealing with the trooper, but in the wrong for how he went about it. He was not proud of his actions, but he had had little choice in the matter and Motti could not appreciate that because of his emotional ties to the situation.
"That was too close for comfort," said Motti as he took a knee before Jerjerrod and gingerly lifted Jerjerrod's arm to examine his side.
"You were never in any danger from me; I could see exactly what I was doing."
"I know; I could feel you strangling him and I'm telling you, that was too close for comfort."
Jerjerrod would have liked to have pointed out that Motti had just admitted to feeling a connection with the Force, but Leia was jogging over to them with a gesture behind her that could only mean that more troopers were coming and the three of them gave a collective groan of exhaustion.
None of them were in a position to fight back unless they could be certain that they would not have to resort to physical strength to win, but for that, they would need the element of surprise and the only way Jerjerrod could see that they could achieve that was to climb a tree. Their next best option was to hope to go unnoticed or at least, ignored by the troopers.
"Play dead," Leia insisted. She handed Jerjerrod's lightsaber back, apologized, and then smothered her hands around in the blood coming from his side and plastered it across Motti's throat and up toward his left ear before Motti could even object. Appalled, but impressed against his will, Motti cupped his hand underneath Jerjerrod's leaking wound and then slapped more blood across Leia's back before ushering her down into a position that looked as if she had been shot from behind. He helped Jerjerrod to lay down with his wounded side exposed and shifted his poncho up to conceal some of Jerjerrod's face to avoid recognition. Even if the troopers were doing a quick sweep, they might recognize Jerjerrod's face and take his body to present to the Emperor since there was no doubt that by now the Emperor had given every soldier instructions to bring Jerjerrod back dead or alive.
Motti pulled the trooper Leia had killed close to him, placed a blade just out of the trooper's reach, tucked his blaster in close to his stomach for quick and easy access in case he needed it, and then lay face-down near the blade to make it look like he had had his throat slit.
"Hold your breath," he instructed as they heard the third wave of troopers coming closer.
It was already difficult breathing at all and his gasps of pain had not subsided, but Jerjerrod listened closely to the approaching footfalls to gauge when and for how long he needed to remain absolutely still. At any moment, he expected the troopers to shoot him in the back or the head just to ensure that he was dead, but he was grateful that he at least would be able to sense those actions before they happened to give him time to react.
He could not see them, but he heard the troopers kick Leia to check for a response before moving on to Motti. Then, a boot made contact with the spot between his shoulder blades and he swallowed a grunt as the trooper prodded him with the tip of his blaster rifle.
"Check them all again. Lord Vader said to scan them all for identification in case the defectors are killed. He said he wants a body either way," said one trooper.
Damn it all to hell.
He had maybe seconds to react. His lightsaber grip was pressed against his stomach and as the trooper rolled him over to scan his face, he activated the button to send the purple flare straight up through the trooper's throat. Stretching up his left arm, he grabbed the trooper's mask and pulled the latter down on top of him to shield him from the other troopers who all turned their weapons on Jerjerrod and fired. Blaster fire riddled the dead trooper's body and Jerjerrod felt every impact, but within a few moments, it ceased and he pushed the body off of him to see Motti and Leia back on their feet and the troopers lying in crumpled heaps around them.
Praying that that was the last of their encounters for the day, Jerjerrod deactivated his lightsaber and stuck his right hand up to ask for help standing. With a firm hand at his back, Motti hauled him to his feet and the movement made Jerjerrod's stomach roil. He bent at the waist and heaved, his throat burning and his abdominal muscles straining as bile passed up through his throat. It seemed that something else wanted to come up as well, but it was coming from a different source than his stomach.
Motti draped Jerjerrod's right arm around his neck while Leia took his left, but after just a couple steps, it was apparent that Jerjerrod would not be moving anywhere in this condition.
"If we give you something to help with the pain, can you walk?" asked Leia.
Blood dribbled out from Jerjerrod's mouth and he turned his head sideways to spit as he tasted hot copper on his tongue.
Blaster fire erupted somewhere behind them as well as terrified cries and somehow, Jerjerrod knew that it was not Imperial troopers who were shouting out in fright. He sagged between Motti and Leia until they had to take nearly the entirety of his weight. However far they had to make it, it was too far. Jerjerrod had nothing left to give and would be slowing them down if they wanted to outrun anything.
"Put me down," he mumbled. "Leave me here."
"You shut up," said Motti, glancing behind them as the noises of yet another battle grew closer. He then asked Leia, "Can you take him?"
The princess considered Jerjerrod's weight and size compared to her and did not sound in the least bit confident as she offered, "I can try."
"No, you have to do better than that," Motti snapped and took a strong but not rough hold of Leia's forearm. "I need you to tell me that you have this. Look at me and tell me you can take him."
Leia held eye contact with sympathy brimming behind her eyes in understanding of what Motti was about to do and answered with certainty, "I have him."
Knowing Motti, he was going to attempt something careless, and Jerjerrod tried to deter him before he could begin. "Conan, no–"
Motti pointed to the laser syringe in Leia's hand that she had taken from her small medical kit. "Give him the shot of adrenaline and then both of you are going to move as fast as you can."
Jerjerrod tried to block Leia as she took the adrenaline laser and positioned it at his thigh, but she had already administered it and the effects were instant in that Jerjerrod was able to push the pain to the back of his mind and concentrate on walking. He kept his arm looped around Motti's neck, though, for Motti kept looking behind them as if weighing his options.
"Admiral, we have to move now," Leia urged.
"When I told you to take him, I meant that you have to go alone," said Motti gravely and despite the blood on his neck and dribbling down his nose, any blood in his actual face drained right out at the prospect of what he was about to do. He addressed Jerjerrod with a measured gulp. "Keep moving for as long as that shot holds. You'll need every advantage you can get."
"You know what they're going to do to Firmus," Jerjerrod argued. "Damned if I let them take you as well."
"They're not after me; they're after you. It's always been you, not us. Any reason they had for wanting me dead is because I have no fear or shame in challenging authority," said Motti with a grim smile in acknowledgment of his own past transgressions. "The Emperor wants you, to kill you, turn you to the dark side, or use you in some way. If they catch you…I won't have that on my conscience. I'll slow them down and somehow, I'll find you when I can, but right now I need you to run."
"If they capture you, they'll shoot you and come after me anyway," Jerjerrod dissented.
"They won't," said Motti confidently. "If the troopers had orders to check our identification, they'll know to keep me alive because the Sith need me to get to you." The confession was agonizing, to know that the only way Jerjerrod could be broken was to use his friends against him and that those friends were falling into that trap to prevent Jerjerrod from meeting a gruesome end because of what he was. For Motti to acknowledge that he knew he meant a great deal to Jerjerrod, it was to admit that Motti understood and accepted how he was about to be used. "It wasn't your use of the Force that made them shoot us down; it was because you chose me over the Empire."
The approaching battle sounded dangerously close now.
"But if Vader is out here looking for us and he finds you, he'll snap your neck once he discovers that you can use the Force too," said Jerjerrod insistently. If there was one thing he could use against Motti to make him see reason, it was the threat of being throttled by the Sith yet again.
"I'm not the threat because they can't make me use something I don't accept," said Motti with that stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge his powers returning. "Please, Tiaan, you have to go now."
Jerjerrod didn't move and his grip around Motti's neck was surely becoming painful by now, but he couldn't release his hold. He was determined to make Motti stay, even if by sheer willpower alone.
"Let go of me," said Motti in an abnormally calm voice. When Jerjerrod refused to comply, Motti pulled his blaster out and fired dangerously close to Jerjerrod's head enough to set his ears ringing from the blaster report. "Run, damn you. Run! "
Like an echo that he could not get out of his head, Jerjerrod heard Veers telepathically screaming at him, "Now, damn you!" and then Piett's cries in his head of "Please, Tiaan, go now!" and now he was seeing Motti's mouth form the words that told him to keep going, but unlike Veers on the bridge or Piett in the net, Motti sounded terrified. One look at his face told Jerjerrod without needing to feel that Motti was fighting an internal battle and about to lose to the fear-mongering side. Motti needed Jerjerrod to be gone so that when the troopers found him, Jerjerrod would not see how he could not keep his fear in check.
"Get him out of here," Motti ordered the princess when Jerjerrod showed no signs of moving and despite her size, Leia was stronger than she looked, and Jerjerrod could only attribute that to the Force working through her to pull him away from Motti, because he could not bring himself to take one step away from his friend. His one and only goal had been to keep Motti and Piett from becoming prisoners to be used as bait and made to atone for his decisions and he had failed spectacularly at that one goal. He could not in good faith let Motti take the fall for him.
Prying Jerjerrod's fingers off of him and nearly breaking several in the process, Motti took a step back and raised his blaster, but as he did so, Jerjerrod could see his hand visibly trembling as if it was costing him every ounce of self control to not completely lose his head.
Jerjerrod tried to speak his name, but his voice was lost as Motti fired off several blaster rounds into the sky to draw the pursuing troopers to him and away from Jerjerrod and the princess who could move neither far nor fast. He was still fighting Leia with everything he had, which wasn't much, but she would not let him hobble after Motti and instead steered his face around to meet hers.
"He can't do that. I have to go after him," Jerjerrod insisted as he tried to follow Motti's retreating back, but his last glimpse was that of Motti's bloodied poncho disappearing into the underbrush.
"You have to let him go. That's his decision," said Leia sternly, but she looked as shell-shocked as he did at what Motti had just done for Jerjerrod as well as for her.
"He won't survive the interrogation. He can't withstand the torture Vader will put him through–"
"He knows that, but he made that choice all the same. Don't waste his sacrifice."
"He has no right. He can't–not for me. Not–for–me," Jerjerrod rambled helplessly.
With her hands anchoring his face, forcing eye contact, and trying to calm him, Leia softened her tone and whispered, "The hardest things in this life that we have to do are done out of love. He and Admiral Piett love you more than they fear what'll happen to them, and you have to honor their decisions because you would've done the same."
As she had with Motti, she was trying to extend peace of mind to him, but he couldn't accept it when he knew what was about to happen to his friend. He needed to scream; he needed to do something to counter the rising bloody panic building in his chest. The shot of adrenaline was doing nothing for his nerves and he knew he was about to have the worst sort of painful explosion.
"Breathe, Tiaan."
He had never appreciated just how large and deeply brown the princess's eyes were before. They had always been alert, hardened, and commanding, but now as those eyes bore into him and willed him to find the strength and the peace needed to overcome his emotions, he could see that behind the rough exterior, there was still a young woman there, still a child who had seen almost everyone she ever loved disappear in a burst of light right in front of her. She knew his pain; she knew what it was to lose everything and not being able to do a damn thing about it. She knew the helplessness that came with having to allow those who meant the most to her come to harm to serve a greater cause.
That was the essence of the Empire and why Jerjerrod had turned his back on it and why he was now suffering for it. One did not simply walk away from a lifetime of servitude without consequences, but having Motti and Piett be his consequence was a far steeper penalty than he believed he could bear.
Desperate to latch onto his friends' consciousness and stay with them until he had to be ripped away from them, Jerjerrod branched out in all directions as Commander Skywalker had taught him, willing himself to find their existence within the Force. He sensed a familiar presence and located Piett just strongly enough to know the admiral was alive, though in slight pain and full terror. At the same time, his heart leaped into his throat as he felt Motti willingly respond to his call. Motti had always tried to block him out once he learned that he possessed the skills to do so, but with how quickly Jerjerrod had found him, he believed that Motti had been looking for him as well. He could not make out words, but he did attune himself to Motti's emotions and they were warning him to close himself off, to withdraw from Motti's side and hide.
Jerjerrod tried to convey his frustration and confusion in asking Motti why he ought to hide when he felt Motti forcibly push him out with his warning fading away as their connection was cut off and as Jerjerrod saw the fear creep into Leia's face he knew why.
Vader was here.