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The hybrid Leia crouched atop the slanting roof, her soaking wet robe now filthy with dark blood where she had bitten her tongue, her hair hanging in a tangled mess just as her facial tentacles writhed against one another in agitation. Pity wrenched Luke’s heart at the sight of the despair in her eyes. Even his metal hand somehow throbbed with pain seeing her clutching the severed stump of her right hand into her armpit.
“Luke?” she said. “Are you there?”
Luke only stood a few feet away from her, and as far as he could tell, her black eyes were fixed on him.
“Yes, Leia!” he said. “I’m right here! I’ve come to help you!”
Though the wretched, pitiable expression never left Leia’s mutated face, the lightsaber in her left hand jerked in Luke’s direction, as if warding him away.
“Luke! Luke!” Leia’s dark lips mouthed silently for a moment, then she said, “It’s so dark, Luke, I can’t see anything!”
“Tell me what’s happened to you, Leia!” Luke moved his thumb to his lightsaber’s activation switch, then hesitated. Though he desperately wanted to help his sister out of this nightmare, despite her words he still sensed a powerful intention to kill him.
“Luke, I… I had to make up for our mistakes. Humans, and… and our family. We’ve done so much evil, Luke. I gave in to them… so I could make things right!”
Luke took a step toward Leia. “Gave in to who, Leia?”
Leia’s mouth worked, but she said nothing. She furrowed her brow, as if searching her memory for something hidden. She rose to her feet, swaying unsteadily. Her lightsaber hummed as it probed left and right.
“I had to wipe away what our family has done. Our power - it’s not right, Luke. It’s not meant to be. We have to… we have to be erased, Luke. We have to be replaced!”
Luke’s throat constricted with the sadness of hearing such words coming from someone that he loved. “You’re wrong, Leia. Our family has a capacity for goodness, not just power. I turned away from anger, and chose goodness, just as my father did before me. Even father-”
“No!” Leia shouted, her face twisting with renewed rage as she lifted her lightsaber. “I’m going to tell you something terrible, Luke. After that, I’m going to kill you! But after you hear what I have to say…” Leia swallowed and her tentacles writhed around her throat, as if threatening to strangle her. “After you hear what I have to say, you’ll want to die!”
* * *
Lucitor Reo snatched the injector from the Cheka medic and pressed it against his own neck. It hissed as a slurry of stimulants and pain suppressors shot into his flesh. He tossed the injector on the ground and leaned against the medic, focusing on each ragged breath, his tongue, lips, and eyes throbbing in agony.
He closed his eye which was not already swollen shut, and listened to the battle raging in the courtyard. Lucitor Thorn had taken on the responsibility of leading their forces against the Imperial stormtroopers trying to dig in behind a row of shanty dwellings. Despite the Cheka’s numerical superiority, the stormtroopers must have been determined, for Reo could hear Thorn’s voice cracking as he shouted orders.
Beside him, Fenn sighed, then whined pitifully. Reo opened his eye and saw a medic wrapping Fenn’s arm with bacta tape and bandages while she tried to meditate through the pain.
“Lucitor Reo!”
Reo winced at the sound of his Gungan aide, a Cheka in ill-fitting blue plastoid armor bent over his comm unit. Reo nodded, annoyed at the intrusion.
“Scout sayin’ theysa seein’ stormtroopers sneakin’ out the back of the building!”
“What?”
“Theysa just aroun’ the corner, Lucitor! In bad shape, theysa sayin’!”
Reo sucked in air through his broken teeth, enraged that the Imperial stormtroopers had not simply burned to death. Turning to Fenn, he saw her fully awake, her wide mouth set into a grimace. But behind her anger, he sensed reluctance. Reo had to admit that he felt the same.
“Thorn! Thorn!” he called out.
The diminutive Stralucitor in a bright blue robe turned on his pedestal, not bothering to hide his outrage at being interrupted in the middle of battle.
“Those stormtroopers are trying to escape!” said Reo. “The ones who hurt us.”
Lucitor Thorn’s beak-like lips smacked together. “I can’t spare a squadron right now! But I’ll… I’ll send…”
“We’re going to finish them off. And you’re going with us!”
“I can’t! Reo, we’re in the middle of-”
“The men who started this war are going to get away. We’re going to kill them, together. Once they see their heroes dead, the stormtroopers will break.”
Fenn rose, then took a blaster from a Cheka. “Thorn. Wiping them out won’t take but a moment. Your second-in-command can handle things while we finish this fight.”
Seeing their grim determination, Lucitor Thorn nodded to his second. “Very well,” he said. Gesturing to his personal Cheka entourage, he said, “All of you, follow me!”
* * *
Vasili was out of breath by the time he reached the fifth floor. Since the stairwell had become a choking mass of aliens shouting and fighting one another, he had been forced to use his grappling line to climb to the fourth floor, then he shimmied up the hanging remains of a makeshift balcony up to the fifth floor.
He crept through what could only be a drug den, with Jawas and Ithorians passed out atop filthy mattresses. They did not seem to notice the gathering smoke and the sounds of starfighters shrieking past, nor did the explosions hammering the avenues down below bother them, so the stormtrooper sneaking around was nothing more than a soot-stained shadow. He found a derelict hallway and, with blaster in hand, he passed by doorways hanging open. The area was unoccupied, save for one couple shouting in a strange, high-pitched tongue.
Vasili brushed aside an entryway curtain and crept into a corner apartment. Black smoke poured in through open windows. He followed the sound of gunfire until he came to a bedroom lined with child-sized cots. A holovid poster of a piscine Sullustan singer in a glittering shirt looked back at him with a cocksure grin. Vasili holstered his blaster and unslung his Sonn-Blas F-9E scoped sniper rifle, then peered through a window. He was surprised to see something like a patio projecting out from the window; he realized it was probably once the platform on which a fine restaurant with outdoor seating had been, before the entire building was converted into housing for aliens seeking refuge from their own worlds, as well as gangsters coming up from Coruscant’s flooded lower depths.
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Vasili climbed onto the balcony, making his way past endless formations of empty bottles and still more mattresses. Leaning cautiously over the side of the guardrail, he saw Cheka taking cover behind troop transports and firing at another large force hidden from view. He could not find the Stralucitor.
His heart took off at a dead run as a dented, spray-painted troop transport of a design he had never seen before suddenly swooped into view. Tusken raiders in motley armor leaned out of the open door, shrieking in their guttural language as they fired down on the Cheka. The Cheka immediately responded with blaster fire, raining sparks down from the transport with each hit. The transport jerked unsteadily and one Tusken fell over the side, screaming as he fell into the courtyard, then the transport turned and fled with its passengers still shrieking in eternal defiance.
“What in the world was that about?” Vasili muttered, shaking his head. While he did not mind the sight of aliens fighting aliens, he found it odd that some Tuskens just happened to be on Coruscant waiting for the opportunity to lash out as soon as the Cheka were distracted.
Frustrated that he could not find the Stralucitor in the battle down below, he let his gaze wander. Then he saw something interesting.
“What do you know?” he whispered to himself. “You can see the Republic Palace from here!”
Placing his helmet visor to the scope, he could just barely see two figures standing over the rim of the floodwall.
His mouth fell open when he realized who he was watching.
* * *
Regis found himself lying at an angle of the ruined walkway with a stormtrooper’s arm around his chest, keeping him from sliding down into the muck where the Millennium Falcon had come to a stop. The ruined freighter had pushed a mound of garbage up under the walkway, tearing mesh and girders partly free from their mooring. The Falcon suddenly shifted, its hind end plunging beneath thick, black sludge.
As Regis came to his senses, he realized he could hear nothing. His audio and comm system had shorted out. He pulled off his helmet and let it fall, and he was struck by fetid heat, his eyes stinging in the dark smoke pouring out of the Falcon.
“You alive, sir?” said the stormtrooper holding him. The young man had also pulled off his helmet, his soaking wet hair sticking to his grime-covered face. Regis nodded, then pulled himself free of his grasp and rose unsteadily. He saw others clinging to the walkway, or leaning against the building.
“Anybody hurt?” he said.
“I’m not doing any better than before,” said Birdy, holding onto the grappling line with his one good hand while another soldier clung to his leg. “All things considered, I’d say we’re doing great, sir.”
“Unbelievable!” A stormtrooper stripped off his helmet and slammed it against the walkway, sending it bouncing into the canal. “At this point, it’d be easier to just get shot!”
“Careful what you wish for!” said another stormtrooper, his gaze fixed on the avenue at the end of the canal. “Cheka will probably be along shortly!”
“That’s right,” said Regis. “Set up a defensive perimeter as best you can. I’m going to see if anyone in the Falcon is alive.”
“They’re not,” said Birdy.
“You don’t know that, Bird!”
Regis gestured, and a stormtrooper followed him down the broken walkway. Regis leaped onto the hull of the Falcon, then ran to the small, circular entry hatch at the top. At that moment the Falcon’s weight shifted and, with an ear-splitting shriek of metal scraping against duracrete, she dropped several feet into the water. Regis fell over and caught himself on the edge of the entryway, unable to look away from the dark, stinking water crashing into the ship.
Before Regis could open the hatch, it popped open on its own. A blond head covered in blood popped out, and immediately turned to Regis.
“You alive, Arryk?” said Regis. “That was some extraction you pulled off!”
“Everyone’s alive, sir! At least, I think so. But we need help! None of these people were wearing helmets, and I think half of them were out of their seats when we crashed!”
“We’ll write them up later.” Regis peered into the roof entry hatch just as Arryk slid back down the ladder. The Imperial pilot ran out of view, then returned just as quickly with a small child. He handed Anakel up to Regis, who took her limp body in his hands. A bruise was already developing on her forehead. He handed her off to the stormtrooper standing over his shoulder.
“We’re going to need some more hands down here!” Regis shouted just as Arryk handed him young Ben, who was screaming with tears running down his beet-red face.
“I’ll play defense up here,” said Birdy. “All of you guys, get down there!”
Regis’s helper handed off the twins to a stormtrooper waiting on the walkway, then two more soldiers leaped down onto the Falcon. Regis waited until Chewbacca lumbered into view, his dark fur matted with blood. Chewbacca turned, revealing Han Solo lying limp in his arms. He handed him up, then Regis and another man dragged him out of the hole.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Careful, careful,” Regis muttered. The Millennium Falcon suddenly shifted again, bouncing as it slid atop the garbage mound. Dark water crashed against the rear end, as if the ship was being consumed by some monster crawling up from the depths. Regis’s heart hammered as the sewage crept nearer, and suddenly forgetting his order to be careful, he shouted, “Hurry! Hurry it up!”
Arryk returned with Nurse Pilena, who was staggering as if dazed. He forced her up the ladder, then gestured impatiently. Chewbacca staggered into view again, this time with Lando leaning against him.
“I’m alright,” said Lando.
“Yeah, come on, come on,” said Arryk, taking him under one arm. The pair awkwardly climbed the ladder at the same time, with Lando taking long pauses. Finally Chewbacca got under them both and pushed them up.
“I’m alright,” Lando repeated while Regis grabbed his arms and pulled him out. He shoved Lando into the arms of another stormtrooper just as he passed out.
“Come out of there, son,” Regis said, pulling Arryk out as well. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a tragicomic sight as the stormtroopers tried to haul two unconscious men and a confused woman up onto the broken, bouncing walkway. “Can you help the others?”
“Yes, sir!” said Arryk, seemingly fine despite the blood matting down his hair.
“Good. Hurry up, then.”
Exhausted, Regis looked down into the entry hatch and saw Chewbacca staring up at him. The Wookiee sat on the ground at the foot of the ladder, blinking slowly. Despite finding the Wookiee’s facial features hopelessly alien and unreadable, he could nevertheless see something like despair in the beast’s expression.
Gritting his teeth, Regis reached down into the entry hatch and extended his hand. “Come on, then! We don’t have time!”
Chewbacca made as if to move, then fell back against the ladder. He opened his mouth, but only sighed.
“Think I’m going to climb down in there? Think I can pick up a Wookiee?” said Regis. The Falcon suddenly shifted again, and Regis felt sick at the sudden descent. He pulled his head out of the entryway and saw black water lapping nearer. Seeing that the others were still busy, he stuck his hand back down into the entry hatch, shouting, “Come on! Just…” Realizing that he had never bothered to learn his name, he shouted, “Come on, Wookiee! Pull yourself up! Move, damn you!”
Again the Falcon shifted, but Chewbacca stirred as well, and with one hand on the ladder, he reached out for Regis. Large, rough fingers wrapped around Regis’s plastoid gauntlet, then he had to fight to maintain his balance as Chewbacca nearly pulled him down with him.
“That’s it, that’s it,” said Regis. “Come on, Wookiee. Come on! Pull yourself up! Come on!”
The Falcon groaned, slipping free, and Regis gripped the side of the entry hatch despite his rising nausea and fear. He could hear the others shouting outside, no doubt telling him to run. Chewbacca pushed onto his feet and leaned against the ladder, then forced one foot onto a rung.
“Come on! Hurry!” Regis shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. “Come on, you big, dumb animal! Come on!”
Chewbacca climbed with one hand, often losing balance. Regis felt his own arm hanging out of its socket.
“Sir, we gotta move!” said a stormtrooper who nearly slid past. “Ship’s sinking! We gotta-”
“Help me, then!” said Regis.
“Sir, it’s just a Wookiee!”
“I know! Now grab hold of him!”
As Chewbacca strained to pull himself up, the stormtrooper reached in and grabbed a handful of his hair. For a moment Regis felt the tearing pressure on his back and legs reduced, but then his body felt like it was being pulled in half as Chewbacca pushed up onto another rung. The stormtrooper redoubled his efforts, pulling at Chewbacca’s hair like a rope.
“UuuWaaagh!” Chewbacca shouted in pain.
“You don’t like that?!” Regis shouted. “Then get out here and do somethin’ about it!”
“UwAauUauuuuugh!”
Chewbacca pushed himself up another rung, then another. Finally he pulled his head out of the entry hatch, and the stormtrooper grabbed under either arm. Just then, the Falcon lurched, and stinking water poured into the entry hatch. Regis’s eyes went wide - then Chewbacca hauled himself over the side.
“Okay, now we gotta-”
Regis was interrupted as Chewbacca picked him up, then grabbed the stormtrooper as well. With a new burst of energy, Chewbacca carried both men up the side of the sinking ship, then leaped. Stinking wet Wookiee filled Regis’s nostrils, distracting him from the nausea and disorientation of flying through the air.
He suddenly crashed into the leaning walkway, sending it bouncing. Regis pulled himself out from under the unconscious Wookiee’s arm and watched as the Millennium Falcon slipped beneath the dark canal, tilting upright as it was finally claimed by the ocean of trash. Turning around, he saw Han, Lando, Nurse Pilena, and Anakel lying in a row. Only Ben sat propped up, still crying inconsolably.
“Is everyone okay?” said Regis.
“No!” Birdy suddenly shouted. “We got company!”
The stormtroopers fired. Regis’s heart dropped into his stomach, for not only did he see a gang of Cheka coming around the building, but three Stralucitor stood glaring at them as well. Lucitor Reo activated his violet lightsaber, a cruel smile puckering his cheeks.
* * *
Luke reluctantly lifted his lightsaber, desperately hoping that he could defend himself without killing Leia. But he had already strained himself by staying one step ahead of her, and he was not sure if he would be able to hold back if she attacked. Her lightsaber hummed as she held it forward, her dark lips twisting, her demonic hatred seemingly tempered by remorse.
“Luke, I’ve become a monster… I don’t even know what I am anymore. But it gets into your mind, it twists everything. Knowing… knowing that it’s right is the worst part. Knowing that it created us, and that it hates us for good reason-”
“Leia, we can fix this! You and I, together! We can fix anything!” Luke lowered his lightsaber and held out one hand. “You’re stronger than the dark side, Leia! You can destroy the evil creature that’s done this to you. It knows this, it’s foreseen this. That’s why it came for you! Join me, Leia, and together we can fix the galaxy, as brother and sister!”
As if sickened by hope, Leia’s face twisted into a scowl once again. “You think you know so much, Luke! But the galaxy is more complicated than you realize. You’re wrong about our family. Why do you think we’re so powerful with the Force, Luke? Do you think that’s an accident? Do you think the Force chose us? For some sort of special purpose? No, Luke. The Force didn’t choose us. We were made.”
“Leia, what are you talking about?”
“We were made for something absolutely vile! By monsters beyond your understanding! And that’s why we must be destroyed. The only way I can save the galaxy is to-”
Luke felt Leia’s intention to kill him only a split second before her body tensed, preparing to leap at him. Luke moved to sidestep her - and then a heavy blaster bolt slammed into her chest. Leia’s alien eyes went wide as dark blood sprayed from her back, covering the roof. She staggered, then fell back, her body slapping against the roof like deadweight.
As if in a dream Luke stared at the mutilated body of his sister lying prone, her facial tentacles finally coming to a rest. He heard the report of a large sniper rifle echoing beyond the flooded palace grounds, like the laughter of death reaching across the battlefield. Wind whipped over the roof, pulling at him as he sensed his sister’s life diminishing, then disappearing forever. He felt himself falling down into that dark void alongside her, never to return.
Luke’s hand gripped the handle of his lightsaber, shaking with the power of the dark rage flooding his heart. He turned and ran along the roof, his gaze fixed on the distant battlefield.
* * *
“I got her, Major!” Vasili shouted into the comm. “I shot the Empress! I got her!”
“You got her?!” said Sindo.
“Yeah! I…” Vasili rolled away as blaster fire smacked against the guardrail. “Major, you there?”
“I can’t raise him on the comms, and Lando’s gone quiet, too,” said Sindo. “I’m coming by to see if I can do anything.”
“Some air support would be nice!” Vasili said as he scurried away from the edge. As far as he could tell, several dozen Cheka were shooting at him.
“Sorry, Vas, but my weapon systems are out. Just hang in there!”
“Will do,” he said. He rose to his knees - then he was knocked back as a rocket streaked past him and slammed into the duracrete wall, tearing through the building.
A Gamorrean Cheka down in the courtyard hefted his RPS-9 rocket launcher. Satisfied that he had handled the sniper sneaking up on his squad, he turned his attention back to the Imps trying to force their way into the courtyard.
Meanwhile, Vasili lay back in a daze, watching his escape route fall to pieces in a shower of rubble.
* * *
Seeing the state of the pathetic stormtroopers and other traitors lying on the broken walkway, Lucitor Reo smiled with unrestrained glee, his heart racing at the opportunity for revenge. Though a few of the stormtroopers shot at them, Reo and Thorn deflected their blaster bolts easily.
“Cheka!” said Lucitor Fenn. “Keep them pinned down while we…”
All three Stralucitor felt a surge in the Force, and turned simultaneously. Reo’s heart hammered out of control at the sight of Luke Skywalker running straight for them, his black cape streaming behind him. The Force pulsed in his wake like a tsunami rising to wipe out anything in his path, but more terrifying than that was the inconceivable rage twisting his face into a mask of vengeance.
“It’s Skywalker!” Reo shouted, suppressing the fearful voice screaming in his mind. “Attack him at the same time, just as we’ve practiced!”
“Fire! Fire!” Fenn shouted, raising her blaster and firing off rounds in a blinding burst of light. The other Cheka joined her, firing while Reo and Thorn moved to either side, preparing to catch Luke in a pincer attack. Luke’s golden lightsaber whirled in a pattern too fast for the eye to follow, deflecting blasts and sending some straight back into the Cheka ranks.
“Now, Thorn!” said Reo.
Without pausing in his run, Luke gestured with a free hand and the air hummed. Lucitor Thorn leaped with his lightsaber held high, then felt something like an invisible hammer strike the center of his chest, knocking him back. Luke raced toward Reo. Already sensing Luke’s oncoming attack, Reo lifted his lightsaber to deflect the attack. Having already faced Luke’s ability to bend an opponent’s lightsaber, Reo strengthened his blade with the Force, just as he had practiced. The last thing he saw was Luke’s burning face as the Master Jedi lifted his blade and brought it down, bending his own blade for a split second so that it phased through Reo’s weapon - then the golden blade tore through Reo’s forehead, face, and neck, not stopping before passing through the middle of his body with a sickening hiss and puff of smoke from cauterized flesh.
When Luke turned his attention to Thorn, Fenn reached out and pulled Reo’s lightsaber out of his grasp before the mutilated corpse could even strike the ground. As the violet lightsaber flew toward Fenn, Luke gestured, and the lightsaber whirled out of Fenn’s control. She felt the beam of light smack against her chest as it flew behind her. She gazed down in confusion as her upper half slid off of her legs. The Hutt hybrid crashed into the ground, and her gaze fixed on Lucitor Thorn racing toward Luke.
Again the Force surged through Luke. He gestured, and Thorn’s arms twisted awkwardly, the elbows and forearms snapping painfully. As if in afterthought Luke approached and swept the lightsaber up through Thorn’s shoulder and neck, cutting him down with an audible gasp from the crackling, golden blade.
The shocked Cheka soldiers did not have time for a counterattack, but it did not matter, as Luke immediately raced toward them, his anger only growing after tearing through the mighty Stralucitor. The stormtroopers cheered as Luke crashed into them like an avenging angel, with arms and heads bouncing before him in a bleeding wave and bodies crashing into the ground, chewed apart by Luke’s golden lightsaber.
While the stormtroopers cheered their savior, Regis fell quiet. Only he had noticed that death was written in Luke’s eyes.
* * *
Vasili strained to rise onto his knees, then fought to pull his helmet off. Though the air was thick with duracrete dust, it was better than fighting against his damaged air filtration system.
“Sindo, where are you?” he said, speaking into his helmet comm. “We need some-”
His attention snapped over to a whirling black cape and golden sword. Luke raced up the side of the building, then leaped and landed on the roof, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Vasili. Though Vasili knew he should be happy to see the Master Jedi, his mouth went dry and mind-numbing fear wrapped around his guts. He hardly recognized Luke through the mask of rage twisting his features.
“L-luke?” said Vasili.
Luke approached as if preparing to squash a bug, then lifted his lightsaber. With a squawk of uncontrolled terror Vasili fell on his back, then pushed back on his elbows and feet.
“Luke! What’s going on, buddy? Wh-what are you…?!”
* * *
At the same moment, Lucitor Opeia leveled her X-Wing as she swept around the New Republic Medical Facility.
“Reo, is your comm malfunctioning?” she asked, flipping through channels. She suddenly smiled as a black cloak came into view. “I am adjusting the attack run. The sniper is being aided by the Jedi. Repeat, I have Skywalker in my sights!”
* * *
Approaching from behind the stormtroopers pressing into the courtyard, Sindo spotted the violet X-Wing. She glanced at her control panel, wincing as the weapons readout still signaled zero power in flashing red letters.
Sindo took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She was lucky that the violet X-Wing had been distracted by other TIE Fighters, and had been too busy gunning them down to hunt Sindo. It seemed like there was no one who could take down the Stralucitor.
But now Sindo had her.
Gauging the X-Wing’s direction relative to Vasili’s position, she knew her options were limited.
“Major, I know your comm is out,” she said. Her chest tightened, and she forced another breath through gritted teeth. “But if you can somehow hear me… thanks for putting me back in a starfighter!”
* * *
Realizing that he had foolishly dropped his rifle, Vasili crawled backwards until he hit a duracrete block covered in empty bottles, which he knocked over in a clattering mess. Golden illumination from Luke’s lightsaber shone upon the Jedi’s burning red face, his murderous rage projecting from his eyes with enough power to paralyse Vasili. Vasili could only lie back with an arm thrown overhead. Then Luke hesitated, his features softening subtly. Vasili watched through the gaps in his fingers.
Luke whirled as if startled. An X-Wing’s heavy blasters shrieked in a deafening roar. Nearly blinded, Vasili saw the dark outline of Luke swinging his blade, knocking aside a bolt that slammed into the building, then somehow swinging and knocking aside another brilliant scarlet beam, which tore through the floor. Luke skidded back on his feet as he deflected a third oversized bolt - and then a fourth bolt tore through his chest, casting him backwards.
Vasili’s attention flew to the oncoming violet X-Wing just as a black TIE Interceptor raced into view, the air screaming with the force of momentum as Sindo directed her starfighter straight into Lucitor Opeia’s X-Wing. In a terrific explosion the ruined starfighters slammed into the building. Vasili felt the floor shifting beneath him, and then he was sucked downwards in a whirlpool of groaning rubble.
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