Last Calls

"Speech"

"Radio or calls"

'Thoughts'

Conference Room

Marie smiled as Allelujah told her stories of their past adventures and operations. Hearing about them firsthand at least assuaged her frustration at being unable to catch them for so long. The stealth drive, along with their quick in-and-out attacks would have left her little time to chase or follow them. Hearing the details filled her with more respect, though she internally grunted at the realization that Anew was probably allowed to infiltrate the ruin to get the info her master wanted.

She happily let him go on, more than willing to listen, as long as it meant she didn't have to say hers. All her missions were tainted in her mind more than they were before. 'I should have left with him on that pirate's ship. Maybe we could have avoided all of this.' But then Sergei would have been arrested, and she would have had no idea until it was too late.

The Echani centered herself as she finally relaxed. They had to go after Ribbons, but there was no sword above her head like before. While she was now a traitor and would be hunted, at least she could do something with her powers. Allelujah finished up another story when he looked her deep in the eyes, concern etched on his face, "Are you ok?"

She smiled and kissed him, "More than ok. Just thinking about how fate is funny." He returned her smile, and a serious thought crossed her face, "So how do you plan on getting Hallelujah to cooperate? You haven't mentioned him at all in the last couple days."

Allelujah nodded, "He has shut himself off from me. I can feel the anger, like he is storing it or waiting for something." He looked down at his lap, and gripped his knee, "I don't know why, but I need to connect with him. Or else…"

Marie just nodded, "We'll figure this out. But you need your head on straight. You and Setsuna are our best hope to fight against Ribbons." She bit her lip, "If you two can't handle him, then no one can."

"The two of us against a dark side force user. But surely you can help?"

"I don't have a weapon, unless you wanted to give me yours. He is more powerful than any force user I have ever seen, and I don't know how much I could add, though I'll do what I can. But we need to make sure your friends know they can't fight him straight."

Allelujah nodded and tried once again to reach out to this darker aspect. He pushed into that broken mirror, and once again bounced off the glass. A heavy sigh left him, and a bad feeling grew in the back of his head as she looked him in the eyes, "We just have to trust in the force. He will show up when he is needed." Marie pressed into him, his arm around her. A comfortable silence filled the room, yet that undercurrent of fear and discomfort would not leave the Jedi who had been tortured for years.

Tieria's Room

A few hours had passed since the rest of the crew had arrived, and Tieria simply looked over the deep blue skies of the planet. Sand blew lightly in the wind, and the clone tried to let that calm weather try to calm down his beating heart. Every thought of Ribbons unwound his mind, the unanswered questions swirling and filling his mind. 'Who knew that learning more would make it worse?' His breath fogged the window as he tried to distract himself.

Thoughts of each part of his blaster. Operations of the past. Every insult he silently called Lyle before he opened his heart up. 'Why were you so alone?' Yet he kept coming back to this question of what he was and why he was treated that way. His brow furrowed, and he growled under his breath. He just wanted to be a soldier. To overthrow the empire. But he was forced to reflect against his will, like what happened with the crew.

There was a knock on the door, and he took a deep breath as he called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me." Feldt's soft voice barely got through the door, and he tried to calm his racing mind as he turned to walk away from the window. Each step was heavy, and he opened the door, seeing the Miraluka standing there, "Hi."

She was looking at the ground, and he stood out of the way of the door, "Come in." Feldt nodded and walked past him, standing in the middle of the room. He closed the door behind her, and Feldt looked down at the ground, collecting herself, "Are you ok?"

"Yes. But I don't know how you will react to what I have to say."

He looked at her curiously, "Right. You said you had something you wanted to tell me before you passed out." He stared down at her, letting her speak at her own pace. A few seconds passed, and Feldt took a deep breath.

"When I was digging through Anew's connections in the force, I touch Ribbons's mind and saw a memory of his. A memory with you in it." She shuddered, remembering the sensation of the powerful force user attacking her mind.

Tieria's eyes widened as his heartbeat faster. This was more than he expected. 'Not that I know what I really knew what she was going to tell me.' The force users on their team could be strange, and the force was a mysterious force at best. He couldn't speak, and just nodded at her as the Miraluka continued, "I don't know how true it is. His own feelings tinged it. But I saw him looking at some sort of pod with a cloaked man and pair of bodyguards. And when I looked at the pod, it was your face inside it."

"And what was Ribbons doing with me?"

"He didn't explicitly say, but the man regarded your lack of connection to the force a failure and told him that he would have to earn his favor." Her voice trembled a bit, "Anger radiated the memory, and Ribbons gave you a death glare. It promised so much punishment."

Tieria took a few seconds to collect all of that, his own voice trembling as he spoke, "Who was this robed man?"

"I have no idea. I didn't want to look in his face, and he radiated the dark side, even if it was just a memory and not reality. He could be an inquisitor or some other dark side user in the Empire?" Tieria tried to distract himself from the anger rising in his guts from the revelation. He had done nothing but fail a selfish man and had to watch and hear so many people get tortured. 'Neil wouldn't be dead. If I hadn't been so stupid, then he would be alive.'

Tieria nodded at her words, and he rustled her hair as he frowned at her, "So I was a test subject for some experiment."

"You are more than a test subject!" Feldt cried out instinctively, and she blushed as she realized she said that. Tieria chuckled and let her collect herself, her mouth hanging open, "You are better than that. All of us are proud of you."

Tieria's heart raced as his cheeks reddened. The words struck him, and he tried to hide his increasing blush as he fought a wider smile, "Thank you." No other words would leave his mind, and Feldt looked at him with a blushing face, "Is there anything else of interest that you saw?"

Feldt shook her head, "No. It was a simple chamber, and the memory was incomplete. I don't know if he remembered every detail in all honesty." Her voice trembled, "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"Don't be. It happened. All this means is that I have another reason to kill him." He let out a harsh breath, and looked at the window, "Do you mind leaving me alone right now? I have to think."

Feldt nodded, "No problem." She began to walk out of the room and turned to look at him one more time as he moved back to the window, pressing a hand on it. There was a calmness in him she hadn't sensed when she entered the room, and if her revelation was what caused it, she was happy to have given him peace.

The door slid closed as a small smirk grew on his face. Ribbons was mad at him for some failure of his. This new figure was certainly something to worry about, but he suspected it was far above their skills to deal with if Ribbons served them. They were hours away from being up and running, and soon they would show Ribbons why he made a major mistake.

That inner peace filled his mind, and while the Jedi in the team may disagree with his need for justice, he would pursue it. There was no storm of questions. Only a drive to resolve everything that had been done to him for all those years and everyone on the crew.

Brig of the Vagabond

Sergei heard the door slide open as Christina walked in. The Zeltron smiled and tilted her head, "Interested in joining a sabacc game?" The older man raised an eyebrow, and Christina just shrugged her shoulders, "You want to help us take down Ribbons, and we have four force users on the ship. I don't think you could do much more damage, not that you know our systems."

He hummed under his breath, and chuckled slightly, "The Empire made that illegal for their soldiers, but every officer I served under or commanded didn't seem to care. Unless they really wanted to brownnose. But I'll join you. Though I'm not very good."

Christina laughed, "I don't think skill is a real factor here." The man stood up and followed her to the conference room, where a yell from Lyle filled the air.

"You cheated!"

Anew's voice responded with mirth as a collection of cards were laid in front of her, the two of them sitting across from each other on the big table, "You really have to get better at learning when I'm bluffing." Lyle's face was red as he leaned back in his chair. He groaned as his lover touched his shoulder, "We have more rounds to go. Maybe you can earn back that booze money~."

Lyle glowered at her as he pulled his shoulder away, Anew just grinning as she could smell the sore loser on him. The Corellian grumbled under his breath, "Treat me like a newbie. Be nice to me." He saw the pair, and gestured for them to join them at the table, "Can one of you please cool her ego?"

Christina rolled her eyes as she looked between the lovers, "Why are you always such a sore loser? You play Sabacc with a former imperial agent and don't expect her to be able to hide her expressions?"

Lyle just waved an arm at her and looked at Sergei, "Welcome to the game. I'll let you use some of my funds, as long as I get them back."

"Sounds good to me." Unlike Anew, Sergei didn't have a good Sabacc face, and as the rounds continued, the money moved back and forth. He stayed quiet, just listening as Anew and Lyle flirted, or Christina teased them. A bit of alcohol flowed, just enough to loosen them up. He drank slowly, remembering some of the hangovers he's had in his decades of life. A comfortable atmosphere filled the room, and he found himself joining in a bit. He was still an outsider, but they weren't the worst people as he thought back to the old days, when he was a young officer.

"So, who did you serve?" He looked at Anew, who frowned, "You don't need to answer if you don't want to."

Anew shook her head, "No, it's fine. I served under Ribbons, and only defected a couple months ago."

"Did he betray you or just your conscience?"

"A bit of both if I have to be honest. But I'm here now, and he will pay for what he's done to everyone." She raised a glass, and the rest of them matched her, "To killing that asshole!" They clanked their glasses, and the mood picked up as Sergei let the serious questions fade away. He had no idea how long they had before something happened, but he would be ready.

Engine Room of the Vagabond

Allelujah and Marie approached the door to the engine room and opened the door to see Feldt and Setsuna mediating. Their eyes were closed and at peace as the engine room hummed around them. Without saying a word, the pair entered and watched the younger force users bask in the force. The Jedi smiled as memories of the past came back to them, of learning how to mediate. Marie bumped his side with her elbow, "How long did it take you to figure that out?"

Allelujah blushed, and Setsuna opened his eyes to see the pair standing there. With little hesitation, he gestured to the center of the room, "You can join us if you want. Just centering herself before this mission."

Marie smiled, and joined the pair as Allelujah was right behind her. Feldt turned to look at them, her lack of vision a bit unnerving to the former agent, but then again, she hadn't seen a lot of Miraluka, "Was this like the old times? When you were with the Jedi?"

Marie nodded, "Yes. Though you two would have been a bit younger than you currently are. And by the time we were apprentices, it was mostly mediation with our masters' or a small group at most. The younglings were the larger group."

The force was calm and warm, radiating through the room as Setsuna had closed his eyes again. Warmth filled all the force users as they could feel the weight of destiny tugging on them, but a preparedness gave them that much of a boost. If they had to face an implacable enemy, then all they could do was wait and see what would happen when they met Ribbons and his forces.

Setsuna spoke quietly, "We may not be your fellow Jedi, but we can pretend if you want."

Allelujah smiled as he looked at Setsuna, "We don't need to pretend. Both of us suffered, and we have to adapt. If that means finding others like us, be they Jedi or other force users, than that is more than enough." He took in a deep breath, the let it out, "Let's just enjoy the moment."

All the force users closed their eyes as they let the force wash over them. While it had been a week or so since the raid on the ruin, that sense of the endless darkness sat over all of them. But here in this room was peace and resolve. They could sense each other, and even if the bond wasn't strong, it filled them with hope. A revitalization of the light side and a potential new start to the Jedi. There was still a long fight ahead, and none of them knew what that meant, but here and now, there was an aura of the light side.

Soon enough they would be called to plan, and then everything would come to a head.

Conference Room of the Vagabond

The room was fuller than ever before. All the seats were taken as all eyes were on Lyle. The ship was up and running, and Haro was getting the ship started. The projector wasn't even up as everyone looked at him intently, "So we are going into a suicide mission with no real intel. What do we know?"

Marie was the first one to speak, "Only two of us can face Ribbons head on. The rest of us have no counter to his lightsaber. Blasters will be useless unless we can overwhelm him, but he is likely to have a large compliment of stormtroopers." Eyes went to Setsuna and Allelujah, who both acknowledged that.

Christina looked at her curiously, "Don't you have the force?"

"I do, but unless you guys have a weapon that can resist a lightsaber, all I could do was dodge and hope I can get a blow in. And when I fled from him on the Omen, I could feel his overwhelming power. He eclipses any of us on the ship one-on-one."

Tieria grunted, "And if the device we suspect he's looking for could empower him, then we are facing an even more powerful enemy."

Feldt looked to Sergei and Marie, who sat next to each other, "What sort of resources would he have?"

Sergei cleared his throat, "Technically any resource he wanted to in the sector, but in this time frame, it could be anything from a Tartan to a Star Destroyer in my fleet or any garrison forces." He mulled over the time frame, and frowned, "But he seemed to operate out of a personal Tartan class ship, the one Marie was on. That would be our best option."

Christina and Feldt blanched, and Lyle took a deep breath as he leaned heavier against the table, "So dozens of troops on the low end, or thousands on the high end. And we have no idea what we are looking for when we get there."

Tieria smirked, "It's not like we haven't done this before. Weren't you the one who kept throwing us into dangerous missions? And if the admiral is correct, he is going to hide this as much as he can."

Christina's eyes lit up, "If he wanted this to be public, Ribbons would have already done that. If the imperials are infighting as much as we suspect at times, then he would bring the least number of witnesses." She looked to Anew.

"He has been looking for years for this, so it would make sense he would bring his personal entourage over an entire Star Destroyer." Anew hummed under her breath, "The only thing that matters is the objective. The methods are secondary. That's what he would always say."

Setsuna let Anew finish, the rest of the group quietly taking in the info, "So we need Allelujah and I to face him, but what about those droids that defended the last ruin? There were a large horde of them there, so would this place have even more?"

The old team just nodded, and Sergei looked at everyone, "What does he mean?" He looked to Marie, who shook her head.

Allelujah spoke, "Well when we found a layer underneath the surface ruins, they had a number of ancient droids that defended the area. A few large ones and lots of small, almost disk-shaped ones. All of them with sharp legs and blasters on them."

Marie grumbled under her breath, "And I completely missed all of this." She had been worried when she had been told the whole story, but in hindsight the men would have been overwhelmed by the security. 'Ribbons would have gotten what he wanted no matter who found it.' As much as she hated to say it, but he had planned the operation well, assuming Anew had been guided to do that.

Lyle looked the group over, "So plan to go in with either ion cells or an ion blaster. The armor is also thick, so you will need to aim for weak points, unless you are our resident sword users." He chuckled as he turned to Setsuna and Allelujah.

"We will take the brunt of the big ones. You think the stormtroopers could handle them?" Setsuna spoke evenly as he reflected on the surprising speed of the droids.

Lyle nodded, "As much as I hate to say it, at their best, the army can certainly hold their own, and I suspect that Ribbons would take his best men. And worst case, he has control of security, which might be more likely than any of us would like. He's the only one that can understand that ancient language." That was mostly for the two imperials, who nodded in appreciation.

Tieria tapped on the table, "So our plan is charge into an unknown building chasing Ribbons, who could have stormtroopers and security droids under his control. We then must kill him and hope he's not powered up by whatever this device is." A small smile formed on his face, "I'm in."

Lyle looked around at the group, finishing on Christina, "You'll be on the ship." She looked at him with short-lived relief, worry in her eyes as the mission's danger sunk in. He then looked at Feldt, "And as much as I hate to say it, you might be needed to help with some of the tech. I won't force you, but I can't think of a better person."

Feldt nodded, confidence in her voice, "Of course!" Lyle smiled as Setsuna just nodded without a word.

Sergei smiled, "I have to pay him back for threatening my daughter." Marie blushed, and Allelujah had a nervous expression across his face as she composed himself. 'Well, it could be worse?'

The two Jedi nodded, and Marie spoke, "Just give me a staff, and I can handle those droids." She hadn't checked the armory in detail, but surely, they would have something she could use.

Lyle gave one last look at Anew, who didn't even need to say a word as the need to get back at the man who got her brother killed and controlled her would get what he deserved. He took a deep breath and could feel the confidence flowing through him, "I'm not a speech guy, so all I have to say is we will beat the inquisitor. We may not all make it, or even any of us, but we will make sure the empire doesn't get their hands on this weapon. So, get prepped and ready to fight!"

Setsuna and Tieria grunted in approval, Christina clapping as she could feel the energy rising in the room. Marie and Allelujah linked hands while Feldt smiled. This would be dangerous for all of them, but they would be doing it together. Everyone stood up as they headed to the armory to get suited up, and Lyle just watched them all leave. 'Most risky mission yet. Hope you'd be proud, Neil.'

Author Note

Well, we finally reached the last couple of chapters. It will be action and drama all the way to the end, so I hope everyone is excited. This was a fun story to write, and while things have changed from my plans, I hope you all enjoy what is next! Please review and comment, and I'll see you guys' next time!