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Chapter 10: The Last Life |
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The continuing perils of Loki Meridean . . .
Chapter Ten
“The Last Life”
Jaken had broken his other Temp, which meant he could at least try to use the Force. But the five or so Ysilimari were still being carried around where ever he went, creating a Force bubble. He figured Revan would want to use her Force powers onboard, so she disposed of the other thousand or so Ysilimari. Jaken had regained enough of his strength to begin to pace.
Revan was obviously planing to draw Loki away long enough to not only deploy troops to Yavin IV but also to kill her and himself. But he was hoping Loki would still be so pissed at him about the fight that she wouldn’t bother. Better him die than her and the entire Jedi population.
Isn’t that what she told you? He asked himself. Jaken remembered well. If a handful of crooked, dark people had to die to ensure the safety of billions of good people and beings, then so be it.
Jaken blinked back the tears that hadn’t even threatened to well up in his eyes. She won’t come back for me. He thought. I hurt her too much. Not just physically, but emotionally. She was just a child. She trusted me. She’ll never trust me again, not after what I did to Jenovia. Alfonso, you heartless b*****d, you tricked me! Told me the northwest side, when it was really the northeast side. She hates me now! Hates me because of you!
He slammed his fist against the wall.
Jaken sighed. Loki was his first love, but he had forgotten her at one point, and picked up a new. Damn mind-wipe.
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Tril,” he muttered. He looked at the tiny viewport, gazing at the stars.
Have you ever stopped to count the stars, Jaken?
I don’t think it’s possible, Trilian.
Not if you never try.
Jaken closed his eyes.
“I love you, Trilian,” he whispered.
“I honestly don’t know what she sees in you.”
Jaken jumped at the sound of the filtered voice. He turned and smirked.
2
Loki punched the throttles again, feeling the G-forces play across her features. She heard her friends in the lounge or right behind her yelling their approval or their displeasure.
“LOKI!”
She grinned at the yelled that came from Rio beside her. Easing up the in the throttles, they all settled back and Loki couldn’t suppress her grin.
“What have I said?!” Rio said, shakily.
“Always wear clean underwear?” Max chimed in. Loki laughed.
“No,” Rio said, rolling his eyes. “It’s my goal to get the Falcon back to Han in one perfect piece. If we don’t die, and we come back with his baby in a garbage bag, he will kill me.” Loki rolled her eyes. “You need to ease off of those throttles or the gears will jam.”
“Stop worrying, Rio,” Trilian said, walking to the front. “Loki knows what she’s doing.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Rio muttered. “How’s Fina and Riku taking Jaken’s capture, anyway?”
“Fina isn’t saying much,” Tril said. “Riku is perfectly fine with it, though.” Loki rolled her eyes.
“He would be,” Loki said. She studied Trilian for a moment. She’s not telling me everything, she thought. “What about you, Trilian?” Trilian shrugged, totally poised.
“I wish he was with me,” she said. “He is my best friend.” Loki nodded. Tril was a good actress. “How far from Endor are we?”
“An hour, maybe an hour and a half.” Rio said, reading the Nav computer’s read outs. Trilian nodded. She walked back to the lounge. It was loud there.
Nikolai, Vyse, Riku, and Constantine were playing Sabaac against Max and losing miserably. Juniper was knitting. Gabriel was reading. Xaqi was using a stone held in her right hand to sharpen her blades on her left hand. Kagome was painting Fina’s nails. No one noticed Trilian slip away the first time, they didn’t notice the second time.
When she first slipped away, she went to the captain’s mess.
Of course, since Han had lived there for a good portion of time, it was a captain’s mess. The bed wasn’t exactly made, and the room was in a state of chaotic organization. The chest of drawers were closed, and each drawer either had socks, shirts, unmentionables, and pants, but those clothes were just thrown in there, helter-skelter. Tril had locked the door behind her.
The brunet had sat on the bed and whipped out her mobile comm. device.
She flipped the receiver up and pressed it to her ear, the mouth piece very close to her pink lipsticked lips. Trilian enunciated a number clearly and waited for the other to pick up. A gruff voice had answered her first time, sounding as if he had just gotten up.
“Daddy?” Trilian had said. “I need a favor.”
Trilian smiled at the memory. Of course her father had jumped at the occasion. He wasn’t exactly thrilled she had asked him to help his least favorite person, but what could he do? He abandoned her on Nal Shadaar, leaving her to become a slave. She broke out and there she was. Her father owed her.
Tril sat the on bed again, this time not planing on calling her father. She reached into one of her many cargo short’s pockets and pulled out a thin chain. On the V of that chain, swung a glowing yellow stone.
Trilian brought it to her eyes and examined it. The stone flooded a vibrant blue.
“Spirit Stone of Amethyst Gem and her daughter,” she whispered. “Show me my father.”
She stared into the depths.
Trilian stood a few minutes later.
Her father was on board the Chiss Battle Dragon.
3
Jaken smirked.
“Hello, Boba Fett,” he said, crossing his arms. The bounty hunter rasied his blaster.
“Shut it, Crane,” he said. “I’m only here because my daughter asked me to be.” Jaken raised an eyebrow.
“She asked you to break into a Chiss Star Destroyer to break me out? Boba, I’m touched,” Jaken said. Fett cocked the blaster.
“Just get up and let’s get going,” he growled.
Jaken clung to the wall as they passed down a corridor.
“Where’s the Slave?” He hissed.
“I snuck aboard on a transit ship,” the hunter said. “We’ll get back on it, get back on Endor, and then on the Slave. And that’s all if you don’t get us caught.” Jaken rolled his eyes. He took a step out of the shadows.
“How would I get us caught?” He asked. Unknowingly, Jaken had triped a lazer wire, setting off a shrill alarm.
“Like that,” Fett said dryly as he began to fire. “Get to the transit ship. I’ll meet you there.” Jaken didn’t ask twice. Without his Force powers, he was as good as bantha fodder.
4
“We’re coming up on Endor, guys,” Loki said. She could see the Chiss’s Battle Dragon up ahead, along with the blockade. Worse, she could feel Revan’s and Xinix’s presence on board. Roki had felt them too.
“We’ll come in low,” Rio said, switching the appropriate switches and hitting the appropriate buttons. Loki eased on the throttles. “Nice and slow, Lo. Try not to look like we’re doing something suspicious.”
“And how, exactly, do I do that?” Loki said, dryly.
“I don’t know,” Rio said. “Fly casual.” He turned around to Aliea, who had a portable comp on her lap. A lap-comp. Her fingers hit the keys furiously. “How’re those Clearence Codes coming?”
“Patince is a virtue,” Aliea sing-songed. She finally got the list up on her screen and scrolled down, looking for the right code.
“Unidentified YT-1300,” a voice said over the comm. Loki shut everybody up for a moment. No one even breathed. “State your reason for visit.”
“We’ve got supplies aboard,” Rio said, promptly. He hoped his foster brother’s old guise wasn’t as famous as he always said it was.
There was a moment of tense silence.
“Please enter your Clearance Code,” the voice commanded. Rio looked back to Aliea, pleadingly. Aliea handed him the print out.
“Uh, 723-42-99-666,” Rio said, reading the sheet.
“Checking clearence, YT-1300, remain where you are,” the voice said.
Everybody relaxed.
“We aren’t out of trouble yet,” Loki whispered. “Everybody just sit tight.”
“Yeah, like Michael-Jackson’s-staying-over-for-the-night-tight,” Max said, dryly.
Loki scanned the immense Battle Dragon before her. She closed her eyes.
“Jaken’s there,” she breathed.
“No s**t,” Riku muttered. Xaqi hit him in the shoulder.
“Revan and Xinix are too,” she breathed, even more stressed about the whole situation. “I shouldn’t be here.”
“What are you talking about?” Rio said. “You’re the one who wanted to head this moving massacre!”
“I’m endagering the mission,” Loki said, almost rising from her seat.
“YT-1300,” the voice buzzed over the comm. “Clearence granted. Proceed.”
The entire ship breathed a sigh of releif. All but Loki.
“See?” Rio said, easing the ship forward with the co-pilot controls. “All is well.” They flew through the blockade, but Loki’s sense of ill-ease did not leave her.
5
Luke tried to center himself in the back of the Shadow, trying to locate his once-again-wayward Apprentice. He had spent the majority of the trip doing so. Han’s ranting had not added to his success either. As he tried despretly to locate Loki’s precence in what could be billions of parsecs of space, Luke hit a few light spots, shadows of her presence. Like holo-negatives.
But nothing presice! Nothing that screamed of Loki! It frustrated him to no end!
It didn’t help that Luke was also worried about his other charges, the younger members of the Sweet Sixteen. What got into Loki? He ranted in his mind, throwing his center off . . . again. Gabriel is barely nine and Max is hardly a preteen.
Lokina was nine when she became a Sith Apprentice.
Grr, stop thinking about it!
Luke found his center again and waited.
The Jade Shadow melted away, leaving Luke alone, in ‘space.’
“Come on, Loki,” he muttered. “Where are you?”
I begin at your ending, he distinkly heard. Now what did that mean? He focused on the tiny stream of vocalization that was no doubt Loki. He discovered it was like a recording. She had left it for her with the intent of having him find it. And did he sense anxiousness under that voice? Loki was nervous. LOKI WAS NERVOUS?! WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!
It was a riddle, he realized, meant for him to stumble over. Luke could not surpress a grin. Riddles were not that difficult for him. Absently using the Force as he was still deep in meditation, Luke wrote the simple phrase a good twelve times on a peice of flimsiplaste. When he awoke from his trance he read what he had wrote.
I BEGIN AT YOUR ENDING.
I BEGIN AT YOUR ENDING.
I BEGIN AT YOUR ENDING.
Luke stretched out on the couch and made himself comfortable. This may very well take a while. Was there a different phrase mixed in with the original? Luke starred at the five words for what felt like hours.
Loki was beginning where Luke left off. That was all he got out of it at first glance. Luke sighed. There were hundreds of things he just left off. Apprentices, projects . . . a limb . . .
“What if it’s not even meant for me?” Luke said. He found it easier to think out loud. Luke thought about Loki. Her likes and dislikes. A name came to mind: Anakin. She had a kind of love for his father. She adressed him often by his first name, even when she strictly knew him as ‘Master’ or ‘Lord Vader.’ “Anakin’s ending . . . Anakin’s ending . . . Mustafar?” That made sense. Anakin ‘died’ on Mustafar, and Revan owned Mustafar, or at least Xizor did and anything Xizor owned, now belonged to Revan.
But that seemed kind of obvious. Besides, technically, Anakin died on Curoscant when he was dubbed Darth Vader to begin with. Loki was smarter than that, more clever.
What if this was one of those many-asnwer riddles? One meant to throw him off track. That sounded like Loki alright. Have Luke and the Masters looking on one side of the galaxy while she was on the other.
Luke remembered what he had observed earler. She also knew his father as Lord Vader.
Lord Vader’s end . . .
He worte that down too.
LORD VADER’S END.
One word popped out of those. A word hidden and scrambled in this under-lying riddle. One that chilled Luke’s blood.
“Endor,” Luke said, eyes flashing.
6
Jaken heard Fett’s cry. He knew he had been hit and hit good. Even Mandilorian Armor had its limits. He kept running, hoping to bump into the person who flew the transit, hoping for anything. He was in serious pain. Jaken knew the effects of electroction. He knew his bone marrow was hardening from the exposure to electricity he was subjected to. He knew he had to get to some bacta, as skin crawlingly nasty the stuff was, and fast.
He stumbled, tripped and landed, heavily, on his right arm. There was a sickening pop and Jaken didn’t try to hold back his scream. His wrist was broken, certaintly. Jaken had only broken a bone once before. He had fallen down the stairs at the Draconic Palace when he was seven, playing some Chase-Me game with Vyse and Fina (they always excluded Alfonso, which probably led to his extreme hate of him) and dislocated his shoulder.
The pain was similar.
Jaken realized he was now in the hangor. The hangor! He looked around for something that at least looked like a transit.
He saw it coming into dock.
An old YT-1300.
7
Loki felt Jaken’s presence again, this time frantic, panicking. Trilian gasped behind her.
Jaken was in some serious pain.
“Okay, guys,” she said, gathering her resolve, ready for whatever was on that Star Destroyer orbiting Endor. “We get out and hit them with everything we’ve got. Fina and Gabrielle, you take out the far right flank; Nikolai and Max the far left. Trilian and Riku, right center; Xaqi and Kagome, left center. Aliea, Juniper, and Constantine, the right; Vyse, Roki and Rio, take the left and keep them back.”
“What about you?” Rio asked.
“I’ll attack dead center, duck in and get Jaken,” she said. “Vyse, I’ll put him in your charge from then on, got it?” Vyse nodded, a military man, ready to follow orders.
“Then what will you do?” Roki asked.
Loki took a deep breath.
“I’ve got to face Revan,” she said.
“WHAT?!” Rio yelled.
“It’s just something I have to do, Rio,” Loki said. “If Xinix and Revan get away again and go through with their plan, can you even imagine the deaths?” Rio said nothing.
“We’re coming up on the docking hangor,” Aliea said, breaking the silence.
“Buckle up back there,” Loki said, pulling her own strap down. “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.” She hit the throttles and burst forward.
8
As Luke and Mara had asked them to, Rogue and Wraith Squadron was doing daily rounds around Yavin IV. So far, so good. No bad guys in sight.
Wedge was just thinking about this when his comm. unit aboard his X-Wing crackled.
“Hey, Wedge?” Wes’s voice said.
“For the last time, Wes,” Wedge said, a little exasperated. “I’m Rogue One while we’re on duty, got it?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, just listen,” Wes said, sounding excited and anxious over something. “Wait a sec. Hey, Dash, you’ve got your ears on?” Wedge rolled his eyes.
“No, I’m just a disembodied voice,” Xaqi’s father’s voice said, dryly.
“How ‘bout you, Hobbie?”
“This is better that Hutt Wrestling, of course I’m listening!” Hobbie said.
“Is there a point to this conversation?” Tycho chimed in.
“Okay, so, I’m pretty sure everybody’s listening, right?” Wes asked.
“Can we please get on with this?” Corran asked, bored.
“Okay, I’m on the southwest side of Yavin,” Wes said, sending them coordinates. “But, guys, it may just be I’m going blind, but, it’s like there’s this swarm of Chiss flyers flying right at Yavin.”
“WES!” Wedge yelled. “WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY SO?”
“I’m going down to the academy,” Corran said, hastily. “Do you think I should evacuate?” Wedge didn’t answer. He was too busy watching the approaching Chiss battle ships.
9
“Endor?” Mara asked, hitting the keys on her nav computer. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Luke said. “It’s just Revan’s style. She’s been mimicking Palpatine since day one. Besides, I got a tip off from Loki.” Mara glanced at him skeptically.
“A tip?” She asked.
“It’s like she left an imprint of herself in the Force, just before cloaking herself from me,” Luke said. “Mara, she cut off our Apprentice/Master bond. She desperately wanted to fly under the radar with this one.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Han said, dryly.
“Anyway, she said ‘I begin at your end.’”
“What the Sith does that mean?” Mara asked.
“She was talking to my father through me,” Luke said. “Lord Vader’s End.”
“Whatever you have to say to justify yourself,” Mara said. “We’ll be at Endor in a little under an hour. We were on that track anyway thanks to the ion trail.”
“With any luck, they had engine trouble and we can stop them before they get there,” Han said. Mara and Luke looked at him. “Not that the Falcon would ever have engine trouble, of course.”
Luke willed the Shadow to go faster.
He had a bad feeling about all this.
10
Loki docked the Falcon with a speed and skill only the Force could give.
They saw Jaken out the view port, running for them, a battalion of Chiss at his back.
“GO!” Loki yelled, running for the hatch. Rio and her hung back; he grabbed her arm and held her close as the deck lowered. His eyes mirrored her own. “I love you,” she whispered to him. Their faces were inches apart.
“I know,” he whispered back.
Fifteen kids busted out of the old frieghter, guns blazing.
Jaken ducked down, covering his neck and head with his arms, broken wrist protesting.
Gabrielle and Fina feinted to the far left flank of soldiers.
“Heaven’s Rain!” Gaby cried, spreading her arms out in front of her. The four soldiers were drenched with a sudden tidal wave that came from no where. “Fina!”
Using her hydrakenisis, Fina raised her arms up in a Y and threw them forward, her hair swirling around her face. The soldiers with swept up in the water’s power and were slammed into the wall behind them.
Max and Nikolai ducked behind a stack of metal crates. Blaster fire ricocheted off the crates. Max pulled out a torque wrench and flipped it in the air, catching it deftly. Nikolai pulled the hilt of his saber staff. The two looked at each other.
They jumped out from behind the crates, yelling like all hell. Max lobbed the wrench and it hit the nearest Chiss’s forehead, making a ‘clang’ noise and returning to Max’s hand. Nikolai ignited his saber and twirled it, hitting two Chiss at the same time.
Trilian’s eyes blazed golden and she raised her hands. The Chiss often used Ysilimari and so, needed to have nutrient stores under the floors for the creatures to sink their claws into. This was perfect for a terrakenetic. A ball of earth rose up, breaking through the metal floor, and barreled into a pair of Chiss. She then cartwheeled over to another pair and jumped up for a spinning kick. A Chiss seized her ankle on her second turn. He prepared to throw her when a fireball engulfed him.
Riku’s eyes blazed as well. He threw handfuls of fire and water. His punches always landed on mark. Tril smiled and he saluted back at her. Then ducked as something flew at them.
Xaqi flexed her hands and the blades erupted from them. She aimed a strike, and those blades went through a Chiss’s neck. Kagome peeled off her gloves and clapped her hands on the sides of a blue face. The Chiss paled to a light periwinkle before slumping to the floor, drained of any life force.
“Hesbarec Necranon Mortix!” Aliea said. A claw made of dark energy slipped up the floor and grasped a Chiss pulling him down and out of sight. Juniper flew nearby, hurling bloom bolts, causing the Chiss she hit to turn into dark blue weeds.
“Hell’s Fire,” Constantine said, thrusting a hand lazily in the direction of two Chiss. They had a second to raise their weapons before fire errupted at their feet.
Vyse used his aerokenisis to blow the top layer of skin from an enemy soilder. Roki, who’s hands were covered with blue Force Fire, scowled at him as his flames died from lack of oxygen to fuel them.
“Vyse!” Roki yelled, summoning it again. “Go easy on the hurricane force winds, alright?” Vyse shrugged. He shook his mop of brown hair in mild frsutration.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. Roki aimed his new signature attack, one he used as Veltan on his own sister, Twin Pillars, at a Chiss. They hit without a single tongue going amiss.
Rio was busy pumping his blaster. Like all Solos, he never missed.
During all the chaos, Loki managed to make it to a huddled form she knew as Jaken Crane. Two more Chiss came at her.
“Jeez, how many of you guys are there?” Loki said. She slammed her elbow into the nose of a third, coming up on her back. Loki jumped up in a snap kick that hit a Chiss in his chin and then twisted, catching him again with her heel. The other pulled a particularly menacing vibro-blade and lunged. Loki summoned her Force Fire and caught the blade between her hands. She snapped it out of his hand and slammed it down into his thigh. A fourth came up on her, pulling a funny looking blaster. Two silver charges shapped like bullets came from the muzzle, hitting her in her right shoulder, two wires trailing back to the blaster.
It was a tazer gun. Loki stood for a moment feeling numb as electricity scortched down her prostetic arm. Loki slowly wrapped the fingers of her left hand around the two charges.
She sent them back at the Chiss with the same speed it came out of the blaser with. They embedded themselves in his throat, sending him to the ground, twitching. Loki kneeled by Jaken.
“You came,” he muttered, meeting her lavender eyes with his grey-blue ones. “You freakin’ idiot, you came.” Loki hoisted him to his feet. “I thought you hated me, but you don’t.”
“Now’s not the time to play Romeo,” she said. “Vyse!” Vyse ran over. “Go, you know what to do!” Loki had briefed him separatly from the others. He was supposed to gather the others and leave. Leave Loki there.
“Wait, Boba Fett is still back there,” Jaken said, leaning on Vyse. Loki nodded. She turned and set off towards the corridor he had come from. “Loki.” She turned. “I’m sorry.”
Loki turned again and ran.
What she didn’t know what that she was being watched.
11
“Jade Shadow,” the comm. said. “You are in restricted airspace. Turn and leave before we open fire.”
“The hell we will,” Mara said. She gunned the throttles and sent Luke back into his seat with a crash. “Sorry, dear.”
“I’ll get on the guns,” Han said.
“Be careful when you come down,” Luke called afer him. He looked at Mara pointedly.
“Oh shut up,” Mara said, doing a barrel roll. “You can still walk can’t you?”
Blue proton blasts hit their mark, and Mara rolled again to miss the green Chiss ones from hitting them.
“I have a limp now.”
“Cry me a friggin’ river.”
They made it through the blockade and docked, sloppily, beside a familar YT-1300 in the middle of a fierce battle. Luke clutched Mara’s hand.
“I can’t see Loki,” he said.
12
Wedge fired again, barely missing an enemy fighter coming at him head on. Tycho and Dash were flanking him, fighting as well. Wedge opened the comm. line.
“Corran!” He yelled. “Get those kids on the transport and get out of here!”
“I’m trying!” Corran yelled. “Is this a secure line?”
“Corran, now’s not the time to — ”
“Dash, listen to me!” Corran yelled over the sound of a great crash and several shrieking voices. “We’re going to Ossus. Understand? Tell Luke: We’re at Ossus.”
“Got it, buddy,” Tycho said. “You see Wes or Hobbie?”
“They’re in a dogfight as we speak,” Corran said. “Okay, the last of the kids are on the transport. Keep those bastards at bay long enough for us to get into hyperspace, got it?”
“Can do,” Dash said. “Wedge, on you’re right! Ten o’clock!”
Wedge fired off a round, blowing up a Chiss.
“They keep coming,” he said to himself. “Corran, there’s your window, get those kids out of here. Now!” The transport rose slugglishly. Wedge dogged them, as did Dash (and the other members of Wraith) Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie, firing at the Chiss fighters. They slipped into hyperspace before they could sustain more than a few scortches on the hull.
13
Luke was out and saber pulled before the egines on the Shadow had stopped whirling. Mara also had her saber out and spinning, Han’s blaster pumping in his right hand. Luke and Mara casually slashed a few Chiss across their bellies, spilling intestines. The Senate would surely hear of it from the Chiss Aristocras, but the Chiss had stepped over the line when they allied with the Sith Lord. Besides, the last thing on Luke’s mind was speciocide.
Luke saw a flash of black hair and turned to a corridor. Loki was running away . . .
“Loki!” He yelled, running after her.
Roki noticed her then and followed the three of them.
More than that, Revan and Xinix noticed them.
14
Loki kept running despite Luke’s calls. At one point, she pulled her saber and slashed a Chiss gaurd, who was standing over a man in teal armor. He had his blaster drawn to shoot the guy. The man’s hair was a deep brown and his eyes were amber.
Boba Fett. Trilian’s father.
“Go, Fett!” Loki yelled. The man stood, shakily, favoring his right leg. He nodded and slipped into a door farther down. Luke paid him no mind. Fett had a way of getting out of tight spots. She wished she had the same chance as he did.
Luke lost whatever patience he had and grabbed Loki in the Force, halting her.
“Are you out of your mind?!” He asked, becoming level with her. Roki stumbled beside them as well. “What were you thinking?!”
Loki didn’t answer, she merely closed her eyes. Luke didn’t have time to gasp. Purple flame burnt away whatever hold he had on her and he was sent flying back into the bulk head, alonside Roki. Loki got to her feet standing over them.
Luke tried to stand but was slammed into the wall again.
“This is my battle to fight,” Loki said. “Not the Fire Child’s, not the Master’s, mine. And I’m going to fight her and I’m going to finish this. However the Force wants it to end.”
“Loki, you can’t!” Roki yelled. “You’ve already died once at the hands of the Thorn Prince. The only step left is — ”
“I’m sorry, but this is just something I have to do,” Loki said, turning and walking away. “If either of you are wise, you’ll run. You’ll run as soon as the hold disapates.”
“Loki, NO!” Luke yelled, struggling at the bind.
“Please, Luke,” she said, flicking her wrist. Luke was slammed again. He saw stars, Loki demonstrating her power. “Do not try to be the hero this time.”
And then she was gone.
15
Loki walked down the dead and silent hall, following the Force presence she had come to dread. Revan and her son had become quite the dream team in the past week or so.
Force, it’s barely been eight days, she thought. Eight days since she died. Eight days since she had used her last life. Eight days. Somehow, it felt like eight weeks . . .months . . . years. The more she thought about it the more she realized how stupid it was for her to go it alone. This was her last chance.
This was the galaxy’s last chance.
Loki knew Revan had deployed her Chiss fighters to Yavin IV. The Spring Lambs. The littlest of the Apprentices at the academy. Loki suppressed a shudder. Like Anakin as he fell so far, she was going to kill the most precious of beings, destroying, as Vader, their future.
She picked up on their imprint again and turned left. Loki knew her last moments where at hand. She knew her friends would feel her death. There was no saving grace for her now. No fail safe, no second chances, no continues.
Loki saw the door then, and knew where it lead.
Her Throne Room.
Loki approached, coming right up to it. It didn’t hiss open like she thought it would. Instead, the palm imprint pad flashed red. Loki pressed her hand against it. It scanned her palm once and flashed green.
The door opened.
Revan sat with her back to her, gazing out an enourmous veiw port. Loki resisted the urge to roll her eyes. If Revan snesed her do that, she would order Xinix to kill her in an instant. Loki needed to stay alive long enough to finish all that Prophecy business.
But really! Did she just cut and paste from the history holo’s about the Empire and read from Palpatine’s parts?!
“Hello, Rose,” Revan said, softly.
“Revan,” Loki said. Xinix emerged from the shadows to stand by his mother.
“You’ve met my son, the Thorn Prince,” she continued. Xinix smiled at her with what was a sick mix of lust and wanting. Ew, did he like me now or something? She thought.
“Let’s cut the crap, Revan,” Loki spat. She pulled her saber hilt off her belt. “Let’s just get this over with.” Revan turned and faced the girl.
“Do you really think you can defeat the Thorn and myself?” She asked. Loki snarled.
“I’ve beaten better and uglier,” she said with a smirk. Revan frowned. “Ooh, careful, you’ll get more wrinkles that way.” Revan’s eyes flashed.
“I’ll give you this much, Meridean,” she said, quietly. “You’ve got potential. You’re so powerful, and so young.” She smiled, perhaps half an inch. “You remind me of myself at your age.” Loki gaged. She didn’t notice Xinix stiffen and fade away, back into the shadows.
“No need to name call. Let’s just do this,” she said, her thumb hovering over the button that would call her saber into being. Revan raised a hand to stop her.
“Tell me, Rose,” she said. “How much do you miss your Master?” Loki hesitated. Anakin? “What would you say if I told you I could bring him back to you?” Loki swallowed.
“I’d say you were insane. Anakin is long dead. ” Loki said, trying not to think of her dreams. Just Anakin and herself. Maybe if he hadn’t been burned, hadn’t been the machine, Darth Vader, but whole, human Anakin; after the Twins were born, after Padme died.
“Oh, but I can bring him back to you,” Revan continued. “And I’ll do it, too. Lokina, imagine, getting to see your first love again. The man you secretly called lover. The one you still crave. All for one thing.” Loki knew Luke and Roki were running for her now. But she didn’t care. All she thought about was: Anakin? Back with me? Would he love me still?
“What do you want?” She asked, throat dry.
Luke and Roki were closer now.
“I want you, my dear,” Revan said, smiling. She descended the stairs. “My Apprentice. Think of it, Lokina. The Galaxy at your feet. The Jedi will no longer trouble you, no longer hurt you. And you’d have your Anakin again.”
Loki licked her lips. It was all so tempting.
“Loki!”
Loki turned and she saw Luke running for the still open door. Revan waved a hand, lazily, and the door closed.
It was open just long enough for Luke to see Loki fall to her knees and Revan’s feet. A sick pit settled in his stomach as he realized what that simple action meant.
 Blakaize · Mon Jun 23, 2008 @ 07:56pm · 0 Comments |
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