Maya-202!

A Star Wars-Inspired Story

Episode I

The Two Prince War

Chapter XXV

Up in Flames

AN: Hi everyone. Merry Christmas! I am so sorry for how long it's been since I've updated this, I've been very busy with life stuff this year. Anyway, I won't get into too much detail, but I hope you all enjoy! There's not too much going on in this chapter, but I'd say it's necessary to a) connect the story up a bit more, and, b) to get an idea of what the Senate is like now, in my AU. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading! Also, I wanted say thank you very much to Chill924 for following and favouriting this story.

Iryx Space

The transport ships were uncomfortable and so cramped that almost every last corner of the thing was taken up by a trooper in plastoid armour. Maya-202 and Leo-78 were sat, squeezed together in a much less pleasant way than they had been the night before, close to the front of the ship and the pilot's cockpit. Leo noticed she was nervously looking down at her feet, and so he took her hand, in a stealthy and slow fashion as to not draw attention to them and their bond (although people had previously, albeit jokingly, theorised that the two were a pair before). She glanced up at him and smiled half-heartedly – not that he could see it from behind that old stormtrooper helmet, though he could tell it made her feel at least a little better. He smiled back, and gently squeezed her hand to try and comfort her.

"I'm not doing that bad, you know," she whispered to him. "But… thank you…" she added genuinely, knowing that he saw right through her last statement. Before Leo replied, the ship suddenly rocked violently.

"What was that?!" shouted a trooper.

"Just turbulence. Nothing to worry about," called the pilot, Tylar-482.

"Although, now everyone's attention is drawn to the front of the ship," announced Leo, leaping up out of his seat and standing to face everyone else behind him, "I think I'd like to go over the most recently decided version of the plan for when we get to Karanda – just one more time for clarity." He pulled out an extremely minute holoprojector from a small pocket of his old clone armour, and pressed a button on it, resulting in the projection of a deep blue hologrammatic image of the beautiful islands and oceans of Karanda whirring to life in front of their very eyes. Leo placed the holoprojector on the ground carefully, as if trying not to knock the image off. "We'll land here –" he said, pointing at a small inlet on the far south of the map. "- it's not too far from where some new intel, sent by R2-D2 just this morning, suggested Thom is, but it's not too close that he'll know straight away. At least, I don't think he'll notice us straight away…" he said, adapting his otherwise confident explanation of the plan. "Then, all of us will get off of the landing crafts and barge towards here:" Leo continued, now pointing towards a large, fortress-like structure near the centre of the holomap. "Obviously, it'll be a little while 'til we get to the fortress from our landing spot, and presumably one of Thomanius's minions will've spotted us by that point, so they'll probably alert him – and that'll mean we'll have to fight our way into the castle," Leo assumed.

"Where are we supposed to look when we get in the fortress, though? There might be like a hundred different rooms in that thing…" interrupted another trooper. A few others nodded alongside said trooper in agreement.

"I'm glad you brought that up, actually, as that was gonna be my next point. You're right – there's a lot of different chambers in the fortress, and let's be honest, probably some secret passages connecting rooms to one another, like the ones in our Master's castle. But, thanks to the good folks at the DB, we've narrowed it down to being – roughly – about here," said Leo, his hand hovering over a general area in the top-right of the building. "This fortress is, apparently, in quite a remote part of the islands, and it's far away from the rest of Kotorinah's castles, thankfully, so we shouldn't have to expect any trouble from the Baron's Royal Guards, either," he added.

"You hope," interjected Maya jokingly.

"True. Knowing how well our plans go, there'll probably be swarms of them down there!" her friend chimed in agreement. "But we can only hope that we'll be fine. That would be the… best case scenario," he said, stopping to think for a moment about how to phrase what he'd wanted to say. "Now, I've had confirmation from Grand Mistress Rey that a platoon of other Eternal Republic Military Units will meet us at the landing point on Karanda, so we won't be alone out there, anyway. Any other questions?" Nobody said a word. "Well, that's it then, troopers. Good luck, and may the Force be with us all…" Leo wished.

Karinishu Fortress, Karanda

"I have good news for you, my Master," echoed the Kaminoan Karrina Foto through a fuzzy, blue hologram transmission, "the prototype for the World-Splitter Bomb is ready." A wide grin crept across Prince Thomanius' face.

"Excellent work, Karrina. You and your workers will be rewarded for your cooperation with me, I can assure you."

The Kaminoan bowed gracefully then ended the communication. The dark prince turned away from his holoprojector, shut his eyes, and prepared himself to contact his master, Darth Sihlo. But before he could, his DCS rang out loudly. "Ugh," he scoffed as his eyelids flicked open, irritated that the thing was interrupting his plan. He tapped the device to see what the message was, and who it was from. It had been sent by Commander Mortify, one of his droids who had been sat on lookout for any ships approaching the planet. All it said was 'There is a ship, that has just come from hyperspace, quickly approaching the planet. Should I make contact?' He hurriedly paced to the window to see if he could spot the ship – after a few moments of searching around, he saw it: it was a Nightmare Cruiser. The one he'd given General Grievous to track down Aren. 'No. That's General Grievous' ship. Leave it to me,' he typed back, and pressed send. Just then, there was a knock at the door. "What is it?" he barked and rolled his eyes.

"It's just me, my lord," called Scald from the other side of the door.

"I asked what is it, not who is it," the prince grumbled, unimpressed with the other's response. Scald entered the room cautiously.

"I just thought you'd like to know that Gener-"

"General Grievous has returned, yes, I already know that!" the prince cut the warlock off snappily. "He'll presumably be landing nearby soon. Greet him at his ship, and send him up here to talk to me," he ordered.

"Yes, my lord." Scald turned away, about to head down the stairs, but then he paused noticeably.

"Yes?" Thomanius quizzed irritably.

"Pardon me for asking, my lord, but… why didn't you ask me to kill the blonde man?" Scald wondered.

Thomanius sighed, as his anger faded to the very faintest hint of remorse. "The blonde man is…" he started. But then, he stopped, and shook his head free of guilt. His disposition returned to his earlier frustration. "Never mind. It's none of your business, now do what I ask and get down there! He'll be landing soon."

"Yes, my lord." After that, the man disappeared without a sound.

A few minutes of waiting impatiently later, and the warlock returned to the dark prince's chamber with the droid leader following behind him.

"Hello there, Lord Thomanius," said the general, bowing gracefully.

"Hello, General Grievous. You have some good news for me, yes?" the prince said.

"Yes, my lord." The droid looked inside his cape and pulled out a lightsaber hilt from its inside left pocket. He handed it to Thomanius for closer inspection. Thomanius' mouth opened slightly in awe.

"It's his…" he gasped. This was a victory for him. It should have been. But something inside him felt slightly… upset, to say the least. Aren, the man he'd once loved, was dead, according to the general's possession of this saber. Grievous laughed happily, pulling the prince out of his short-lived moment of remorse. Thomanius pushed his sadness to the side and began to leer sleazily – at least this way, he wouldn't have to worry about his master condemning his ill-considered decision to keep the filthy Jedi traitor alive ever again.

"Yes, it is," Grievous exclaimed. Thomanius didn't look up from the hilt. Instead, he activated the weapon, and its sunset-yellow blade of energy beamed into presence. He stared at its beauty, almost mesmerised for some reason. Grievous extended his right claw in a gesture – "Excuse me, my lord, but… do you think I could have that back at some point?" he asked.

"Oh, yes general, of course. I was just… admiring your skill. Whilst he had trained with Jedi Master Finn for a time, Aren had, after quitting the order, trained privately under me. He may have only been a padawan, but he wasn't weak…" Thomanius mumbled. "Did you get into the castle alright? Did any dreamtroopers or anyone else spotted you?" he said, changing the course of discussion. Grievous paused, unsure of whether to tell the truth or not.

"It went exactly as planned, my lord…"

"Good. You have done well, general. Keep this as a reminder of your glorious victory today," Thomanius deactivated Aren's lightsaber, then handed it back to him slowly, and the droid took it excitedly, like a baby receiving a new toy.

"I look forward to using this in battle," Grievous noted, before cackling happily, and then breaking out into one of his trademark coughing fits.

"You will do good things with it general, I'm sure," the prince said, as the droid tucked the hilt back into his cape's inside pocket. "Now both of you must leave. I have to talk to Lord Sihlo…"

Diplomat Hotel, Federal District, Coruscant

"Ah, welcome, m'lady. We have been looking forward to your arrival," exclaimed the protocol droid who ran the front desk of the esteemed Diplomat Hotel. "Your husband is not with you?" it asked. Baroness Kotorinah scoffed. "No, that fool has to be in the Senate today. Apparently it's some sort of emergency meeting – I'm going to be watching it, to make sure he doesn't come out with anything too idiotic, from the holoprojector in my room, which I would like to be shown to sometime soon, if that's OK with you," she said irritably.

"Yes, sorry m'lady. C-9HN, would you please take the Baroness' bags up to her room?" requested the droid of another fellow protocol droid.

"Right away, Sir," C-9 complied, slowly walking over, and picking up the noble lady's luggage.

"Chop chop. The meeting is going to be starting soon, and I don't want to miss it," she said, snapping her fingers tetchily.

"I trust our suite has been prepared to the usual standards, no?" the Baroness interrogated C-9 as the two stood in the elevator together.

"Oh yes, m'lady! We would never not keep your room the way you want it – in fact, it is always reserved only for you and your husband's visits," the droid promised. The Baroness appeared slightly smug.

"Good. That's exactly what I like to hear," she approved, folding her arms without so much as glancing at the protocol unit.

"Of course, ma'am." A spell of silence followed before the final *ding* of the elevator sounded out once they got to the Baroness' floor. The noblewoman stepped out of the lift and strode towards her room confidently, C-9 trailing behind her carrying an almost overwhelming amount of luggage. She unlocked the door by placing her finger on a guest fingerprint ID sensor lock, and strolled inside, instructing the droid to put her luggage in the places she desired. "Anything else, ma'am?" the droid wondered.

"No thanks. Now leave me be," the Baroness ordered, and the droid obeyed, shutting the door behind itself. The Baroness switched on her holoprojector, tuning it into the grand Galactic Senate room which appeared in holographic form, lighting up her suite with mini versions of the rows and rows of repulsorpods on which senators sat, talking amongst each other for now. She scoured the senate chambers, trying to identify where her husband was sat, but in the end she gave up. She knew if the fool had the floor she'd hear him good and proper, thanks to his booming voice that could command entire rooms, if only he used it better. For now, she flopped onto her huge, King-sized bed and relaxed as she waited for the senate meeting to begin.

About an hour of endless debates and seemingly pointless votes passed, during which the Baroness completely tuned out (apart from one moment when her husband nearly committed career suicide, though that was the case in pretty much every one of these meetings – she honestly questioned how he'd become the Senator for Karanda in the first place), until something of interest really came up. Well, for the Baroness, it was more something of disaster than something of interest.

"Senators," Supreme Chancellor Armanique, a tall, young woman with long, strawberry blonde hair, said. "It has been brought to my attention that an incredibly pressing matter has come to light," she continued, a certain wariness becoming suddenly apparent in her voice. "Normally, Force Sensitives are not allowed in the Galactic Senate, unless required for protection – but today, I have Jedi Master Rey here to speak with us about an ongoing issue which has been tracked to the planet of Karanda." The Baroness's ears piqued up. She knew what this was going to be about. The game was over. She began to quake in her five hundred credit wampa skin high heels, knowing that she'd have to give up her title if she was caught publicly smuggling a Sith Lord onto her planet, and Force knew what Master Sihlo would do to her. She listened intently when Rey took the floor after she moved her repulsorpod into the centre of chamber.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Galactic Senate. I come here today to inform you about… a military decision that I took the liberty of making," the Jedi Master started. She was met with a few gasps of shock from some of the senators, and lots of mumbling from the others. "As you may know, there has been a war going on between the House of Iryx, ruled by fellow Jedi Master Prince Onasius, and the Nightmare Order – an army of troops assembled by his brother, Prince Thomanius. We have tracked the latter to the planet of Karanda, and I have agreed…" Rey took a deep breath, "… to send Republic Military Units to take part in a planned operation to capture him." More shocked gasps, and this time yells could be heard from the senators, but the Baroness had other concerns. This was it. It was over. She was done for. "I must apologise for not offering this up to the Senate for a vote, but I felt it was too important to capture the Dark Prince to waste anymore time letting him be free; we believe he is a Sith Lord, and his plans to manufacture and use a 'world-splitter' bomb could affect any of your planets if he is allowed to continue with them. I hope you can understand why I had to take action." More muttering could be heard around the room, although this time it appeared to be quite subdued and quiet. "What I don't understand, however, is why a Sith Lord has been allowed to infiltrate land belonging to Senator Kotorinah," the Grand Mistress noted. More mumbling rumbled around the Senate.

"Do you have anything to say in response, Senator Kotorinah?" asked another person – this voice belonged to Robin Gostal, the Sovereign Minister of the Galactic Senate, who stood on the same repulsorcraft as the Supreme Chancellor herself. The Baron propelled his repulsorpod out into the open to meet the Chancellor's and the Jedi's pods.

'Oh Force, as if this situation couldn't get any worse, now this idiot's going to put his foot in it!' the Baroness thought, her inner monologue nearly screaming the words.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Jedi Grand Mistress! It seems like utter nonsensical fearmongering to me, if I may say so myself. Honestly, I… I don't believe that there is some Force-sensitive criminal on my land! I don't why, maybe this is a… um… a virtue signal of sorts to try and make people more sympathetic with the Jedi cause, but your accusations here are one hundred precent false! I can promise you that," her husband rambled. The Baroness facepalmed. The Republic would strip her of her land if they found out the truth, she knew that, and the way this was going, the Supreme Chancellor would order a full investigation of her and husband to find it. Thomanius' plan just wasn't working the way he'd envisaged; the Baroness knew Lord Sihlo should have stuck with her plot for power, which she knew was much more well-thought out than the catastrophe playing out right now. She shook her head in despair as she stared into her hand, muttering anxious sentences that didn't really have any coherent meaning. But after she'd done that, she paused, an idea forming in her head. The Republic were clearly going to attempt to launch a surprise ambush on the prince. What if the Baroness were to throw a hydrospanner in the works and ruin said surprise, to allow Thomanius to assemble his troops in a more… effective way?

Beep! Beep!* Prince Thomanius' holoprojector buzzed away demandingly, refusing to give up. The dark prince growled irritably. His conversation with his Master had been a surprisingly pleasant one – Lord Sihlo had actually even praised him for the fact that the bomb's prototype was complete.

"What now?!" he chuntered to himself as he wandered over to the damned thing and saw the Baroness's contact being projected into the air. He grumbled once more. He was a dark lord of the Sith, a trainee of Darth Sihlo – he felt it was ridiculous that he had to answer to these other, more feeble beings compared to himself. But, his lord demanded it, especially if it was the Baroness who required his attention. Lord Sihlo was persistent that she was an important part of the new Council, no matter if she was Sith or not. So, the prince knew he must answer her request, or else he'd come to regret it. Answering the call, he opened with a very rude, "What?!" But the Baroness had no time for his nonsense, as she responded with her own rude order.

"Quiet!" she barked. Thomanius was about to object, but the noble woman got straight on with it as she knew there wasn't time for having an argument with him. "Listen to me: they're coming to Karanda," she warned. Thomanius shook his head impatiently, a confused expression on his face.

"What do you mean? Who's coming?" he asked.

"Your brother!" Kotorinah snapped. "And his entire army, along several hundred, if not thousand, Republic soldiers!"

Thomanius' face changed to the familiar scowl he often wore. He cursed under his breath, before asking, "How do you know?"

"Rey has been in the Senate, and she's told them everything."

"But I thought the Jedi weren't allowed in the Senate?" Thomanius questioned, and the Baroness grumbled.

"It seems that, thanks to your foolishness, the situation has been deemed a crisis, and she's been allowed in to explain her reasons for sending all those soldiers of the Republic to try and capture you," she told him, then shook her head. "We don't have time for this, anyway! You need to prepare your troops, or else your entire plan, and not to mention my reputation, will go up in flames… as if it hasn't already."

The dark prince ignored that last remark from the snooty woman and hung up without another word. He went over to the window from the grand fortress, which overlooked the vibrantly tropical beaches of the Baroness's planet, and stared out across the soon-to-be battlefield. If his brother wanted to finally capture him, Prince Thomanius was not going to make it easy.