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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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The Mandalorian Chapter 14 reactions: HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME BUT ALSO I’M CRYING edition

- the good good din characterization is back after all the weirdness last episode!!!! that soft way he says ‘no, no, I’m not mad at you’? THAT’S din djarin, he would not be fucking impatient with his son having just been informed and seen for himself that he is terrified, go away mr filoni I know you’ve got all of canon memorized but you don’t get this lol. this feels much more right in how din being conflicted and still thinking he should give the baby away for his own good plays out too

honestly every line of dialogue for him in this one was perfect I was just whispering ‘I love this awkward clueless wonderful man just doing his best’ to myself any time he said anything. “...does this look Jedi to you?” sir I adore you more than words can describe

- we got din chuckling. asjdklfhsdkafghsdafsadhjkfsdahjkfh. fskahfksjad. side note: I can’t believe my joke post about din desperately trying to Force home school the kid with the one (1) jedi trick he knows about and the baby being delighted by it over and over anyway -- listen to his expectant excited laugh when din takes the ball and sets up the game!!!! -- was canon all along. and then the baby & mando music kicking in when he gently put the silver ball into the baby’s hands again and tells him he’s special (because he IS special. to din)? hmng. hmmmmnnnnn

they opened on the height of softness so we would all crumple under the weight of the rest of the episode and that was very mean of them in a way I sincerely appreciate

- nothing to see here... just a dad trying to walk through the literal manifestation of the unassailable underlying forces of the universe to get to his baby again and again........ the desperation in that, the love, the foolhardy devotion................... shit

- okay so I might be a dumbass, but I’d never noticed this before -- the silver ball has a blue spot on the top, like so:

and in addition we get the room where the baby goes full darth grogu (I have to laugh so I don’t cry okay) on those storm troopers, and there’s a red light in there dominating the room (and it did even more in the concept art):

in star wars blue means light side and red means dark side (it’s very sophisticated that way), meaning the visual storytelling here is that there’s a battle for the baby’s soul and gideon and all his nonsense (and the trauma bb’s been through in the wider sense) is pulling towards the dark, while grogu and din’s connection leads him towards the light. just... the image of the baby looking at his own reflection in the symbolic representation of his relationship to din? the way children find their sense of self through being safely reflected and held by their caretakers? god help meeeeeee I will go in there and fistfight gideon myself for disrupting that in any way

the smaller light seems to be blue too, like there’s still the presence of light even if it’s dimmed and small in that shitty horrible room, which is a change from the concept art!

- FENNEC SHAND SURVIVED BITCHES!!! I even called that she’d be back with new shiny robot parts back in season 1, could not happen to a cooler lady, I hope we get more backstory and interaction from her the next episodes -- sounds like she’s basically sworn herself to boba’s service in gratitude for saving her life, I wonder if that’s a cultural thing of whereever she comes from? does she live aboard slave 1 now too?? because that would be hilarious and amazing, it must be like two strange cats trying to get used to sharing the same space

- everything I could ever hope for about boba fett in this series came true, they went down the much more interesting and nuanced route with jango and boba’s identities as mandalorians, he looked cool as fuck and made din as a character shine rather than overshadowing him... amazing beautiful yesss

(I did 100% not anticipate just how ‘cool uncle boba here to help you fuck shit up’ he was going to be but I am delighted to get it anyway. uncle points deducted for getting someone to point a gun at the baby, but the main point still stands lol)

the power and brutality of his hand to hand fighting too... a w e s o m e , I enjoyed the action scenes a lot in this one

- they even recanonized him actually wearing jango’s armour. what more could I ask for. I’ve had confused parent & child feels about these two since I was like eleven and here we fucking go again. and jango fighting in the mando civil wars too!

- so I’m grieving the razor crest (and I always will be, rip you magnificent jalopy, always in my heart) but also there’s the grim satisfaction that my reading on it was sort of true -- it is (...was. oh god it’s going to take a while to sink in huh) a symbol of din’s self and life, and at this point when they take the baby it tears everything else to pieces. the only thing that’s left in the ashes is the beskar and the thing that connects him to the baby. and there’s... a strange solace in seeing that that’s all he needs to keep going? he’s fucking obliterated from orbit but he still has his love for the baby and the beskar and that can keep him going until he finds something new, everything else can be replaced?????? weirdly healing, though he is probably going to have a solid breakdown at some point after they get the kid back (shut up they are getting the kid back) and the cold distant fog lifts

also this scene/shot feels like it carries some Meaning, doesn’t it? I’m on record several times saying I never want din to be mand’alor and that’s still true, but there’s something about the framing of this and the way boba looks at him that’s like... hm. I’m not sure I have the words for it. there’s something heightened about it, anyway, for a moment he looks like something mythic there in the wreckage

(something I would be much cooler with is our clan of two growing a little bit and those new people rallying behind him, actually, that might be neat. imagine if a force user does show up for the baby and gets adopted into the clan somehow??? so many possibilities.)

- from the way he picks up the silver ball... din djarin is on his way to straight up murder some people huh

I think part of what reassures me about this scene is the music -- this mando flute is not distant, is not beaten, is not despondent, it’s clear and determined and strong.

I love this. I love when we get explicit baby POVs, it makes it feel so real and intimate and... like home. (I especially loved baby’s point of view inside the razor crest, which just made me tear up again. baby lost the closest thing he’s had to a home in a long long time on top of it all. everything is suffering)

Emotionally Significant Thumb Grabbing tm; the show

- din djarin looking for the ‘on’ switch on a magic rock fhsdakjfhsadlfhsdjah I can’t breathe

“Well, this is the seeing stone. Are you. Seeing anything?” fsafkdsajhfsa sdhfksjalhfkjsdahfkjsdhf

- the energy around the baby as he’s, in ahsoka’s words, ‘choosing his path’ is blue, and the force sort of works across time and space, right?? so there’s definitely still hope for our lil green bean to not have to come up with a really dumb unsubtle sith name for himself, as is regrettably yet delightfully tradition. darth babbu should never come to pass (I do like how they’re interrogating the normal dark/light side dichotomy in this series, seeing as this is a literal baby who can’t really be responsible for that stuff himself yet and has such capacity for both.)

- listen. listen, the way din says ‘can you please hurry up’ with no sarcasm or real impatience whatsoever, more like a harried worry, to his force-meditating son as he jogs off to make sure no one’s trying to kill them. is hilarious and also YES this is what the character is!!! weirdly and incongruously polite under stress sometimes and with a slightly odd reaction pattern to things!!! he’s not just quiet and badass, he’s a little strange sometimes and it’s so good!

- a friendly opening volley warning shot from boba there

also din uncertainly asking BOBA FETT if he’s a jedi... now this is the dramatic irony I’ve been looking for haha

I guess neither shand nor boba actually know din’s name after this either. baby you gotta start introducing yourself at some point it gets real confusing when there are two mandos on screen

oh the long weary sigh going through din’s frame when boba says he wants ‘the armour’ and he thinks it’s just someone trying to peel the beskar off his corpse again. sorry the galaxy’s so shitty dad

- “But fate sometimes steps in to rescue the wretched” is a killer line well done mr favreau. I like that boba actually offers din a good deal as well and seems to intend to deliver on it from how things are going.

- din using his beskar-covered bod to cover someone he’s fighting alongside!!! literal moving cover haha. also I love fennec’s costume design

- I don’t know where din got more whistling birds from and I don’t care, it was really cool haha

wow haha um so anyway --

(cue all the ‘who wore it better’ with cobb vanth’s ‘spiderman’s first home made costume’ look on one side and ABSOLUTE UNIT DADDY boba fett on the other side posts lol)

- aaaghh the music almost like a stunned desperate fluttering heart beat as din watches the razor crest be destroyed

- for someone who has willingly worked for them in the past boba sure sounds less than thrilled about having the empire back in any capacity

- oof the deadness in din’s voice when he says “The child is gone”. ooooh no that got me h e l p

- guessing next episode is at least partly a ‘gathering old allies and preparing the assault’ step before the grand finale, then! they cannot go for the season ender cliffhanger with this, I will fucking riot. anything can be up in the air except baby and dad being separated, I will not allow it

it would be very funny if the force user baby called out to comes stumbling into the middle of all this like the troy entering the room with pizzas meme too

- the music in the darth grogu scene is partially a dark mirror of the baby & mando music :’( is nothing in this world sacred

also from how he reaches out for it baby might have used a light saber before in the past with the jedi? ngl the idea of baby wielding the dark saber not when he’s all grown up but in like two episodes -- with all the chaos a toddler holding a laser sword would involve -- is all that is keeping me sane here

‘liable to put an eye out with one of these’ well gideon you sure have doomed someone to lose an eye with that one, here’s to hoping it’s you, for full dramatic payoff

he is a deliciously smug awful force with great musical cues tho, you have to give it to him

- okay so this

is obviously awful and horrible and it makes me so sad... but it is undeniably also very very very funny in how it’s framed. you know what? after all this bullshit baby grogu can have a little dark side tantrum, as a treat, we’ve all been there right

(forget finding a jedi, we need to go out there and find a child psychologist who can help him deal with this without adding the fear that he’s on the path to become a two foot tall evil space sorcerer to the mix Y_________Y)

- rip the razor crest except for the second time :’’’( gone but never forgotten

- the last thing din tells the baby is “I’m gonna protect you; I’ll be back soon”. and I hope that stays with the kid somehow and that it actually comes true, that din will be back for him as soon as humanly possible and all this pain and fear can be repaired. ggggghhhhh my emotions are too big for my dumb human body

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta #okay I'm gonna have to. go take a calming walk or something after this haha

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spell-cleaver · 4 years

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Hey, You Should All Read Heir

This was a submission by my friend, HeartOfStars, and I am sobbing at how thoughtful it was, how sweet, and... just knowing that something I wrote could touch someone like this is unreal and so, so precious to me. Thank you so much, Stars, I love you <3

So I’ve been following this story, The Heir, for a while, first by sneaking on Spell’s Tumblr and then also on AO3, and I started to really want to write something about it, because it has really started to affect me, and I love it so, so much. And if you haven’t read it, I’m gonna share with you right now why I think you should. Heir is an amazing, amazing fanfiction, in a number of ways; and it also is pretty unconventional. It does a lot of things that technically shouldn’t all work together in a story, except that they DO, because the wonderful SPELLCLEAVER is writing them.

And so I’m probably not going to get to say all that I want to say here, but this is the gist of it. Heir is crazy because it started out as a simple five-sentence prompt that happened to exceed the five-sentence limit. (By a lot of sentences, lmao. Mood.) But anyway, it started as one prompt that dealt with Luke being raised by Palpatine, which is, first and foremost, an absolutely horrifying idea. And initially, I confess it actually turned me off. I’m a softer person who’s always liked…fluffier stories, and while I do like angst, my brain has a limit for how much I could take. A story about Luke Palpatine was too dark for me, so I decided to pass.

But then, against all odds, Spell just kind of…ran with it. And kept taking more prompts for this amazing AU(instead of moving it to AO3, she kept it here on Tumblr, which is fantastic), she developed the story, and that’s when I realized the FIRST(of many) brilliant thing she had done. She’d made the Luke Palpatine story about the slow healing of Luke and Vader’s relationship. And that’s brilliant because…see, a Luke Palpatine story, in my head, would be dark because of all the stuff that Palpatine would do to Luke. It would show Luke being tortured, miserable, and succumbing to the Dark Side. It would be nothing but dark. But not only does this start after Palpatine has been killed, it focuses heavily on Vader trying to give Luke good things, and while it shows dark things in flashbacks, while Luke is unhappy for a lot of it, those are in spades. Essentially, it’s about a father trying to prove himself to his son(who is much younger than he is in canon), and that’s what I didn’t expect.

So when I realized that, I started to like the story. It was still dark…but I was starting to like it, because that aspect appealed to me. Then Spell did something that appealed to me even more. Following the beginning, which is incredibly angsty, and filled with poor fourteen-year-old Luke being terrified of everyone, and Vader not being able to be close to the son he loves…Spell did another brilliant thing. She introduced a plot point also known as Vader Gives His Son Stuffed Animals Anonymously. That was absolutely, wildly unprecedented. And that’s because this whole-ass fic, about angst, SUDDENLY INTRODUCED A PLOT POINT THAT IS NOTHING BUT FLUFF. And see, this is another thing that shouldn’t have worked, because it’s so fluffy it’s…almost crack. In a completely angsty fic. Darth Vader??? From Star Wars??? A giant cyborg?? Sending??? A child???? Stuffed????? Animals????? Unprecedented. But as I said, it works. Why, you ask? Because Spell makes it work. She weaves it into the plot, into the angst, and uses it to help develop Luke and Vader’s growing relationship. So, we’ve established that we have two things right now: Luke Palpatine(and all the angst and trauma associated with that), and Vader bringing his son stuffed animals. In the same fic.

Okay.

Then Spell did a THIRD thing. And this, this absolutely should not have worked with the previous two, because I’ve never seen this done before in any fic.

This thing is called “Sith possession.“

Spell absolutely made this up, and then wove it into the plot. (Because I forgot the thing that makes Luke Palpatine brilliant, and we’ll put it under the first point. Call it 1a. But the other thing that made it Not Too Dark was that Spell didn’t have Palps actually train Luke. Cause that tends to lead to Dark Luke, which can be too much for some people, like Soft Stars Over Here Which We Previously Established.) But Spell had Palpatine not train Luke, to chip away at his self-esteem, which until THIS MOMENT seemed to be for the purpose of making Luke’s relationship with Vader more heartbreaking; because Luke didn’t believe in himself, and Vader slowly, slowly had to convince him of it, which was amazing. But. Wait a minute. It turns out there was ANOTHER purpose, aka, Palpatine wanting to legiterally possess Luke and crush his soul. That was AMAZING.

But here’s the thing. That should’ve been too dark. For Soft Stars, and for other people. But it wasn’t, and that’s because Spell wove THAT into Luke and Vader’s relationship, and that is the brilliance of this fic. She introduces all these plot elements, the fluff, the dark stuff, the Clone Wars characters, but not a single one of them takes away from the heartbreaking relationship, and where it needs to go. Because the second the possession plot point was introduced, the focus becomes not "oh no, Luke will be possessed” but “oh yes, Vader is absolutely determined to do everything in his power to keep Luke from being possessed.” And that, in turn, built on Luke’s self-esteem. It allowed him to trust in Vader more, to trust in himself, and it keeps going from there.

The final two plot points only built on this, and these are a) Luke finding out that Vader is his father, and b) Luke vs Palpatine. I won’t tell you how it ends, in case you haven’t read it. But I’ll have you know that the way it’s done builds on all of these three(and a half counting 1a) Brilliant Things, and it is absolutely beautiful, and wonderful, and heartbreaking, and inspiring. And, beyond all of these things(I’ve used “thing” too many times. Not good), the thing that has drawn me to this fic is, as I’ve said, Luke and Vader’s relationship. Because here’s the thing. This fic has a sad premise. It has a really, really, really, REALLY SAD PREMISE. Luke is a fourteen-year-old kid who has no friends and who’s been tortured his whole life…by the man who’s actually his father. But the places it goes are hopeful. They’re beautiful. They’re emotional. They’re inspiring. Because Luke and Vader start at a sad place, but their relationship gets better, in beautiful ways. And some of the scenes between them have made me straight-up cry. And ultimately, this fic appeals to me because it deals with the basic themes of wanting to be loved, which both Luke and Vader feel, and which Spell makes sure the reader feels. From the beginning, I felt desperate for both of them to know who the other was, and to come close to each other, and to understand…and though it takes a while, Spell pays it off. Magnificently. Luke and Vader are both alone, but by coming close to one another, they form a bond, and each find someone to love in the other. And then, at the end(or the almost end), they do belong. They are loved. And this is something that, I think, speaks to all of us.

So. This probably comes off as a lot of not that eloquent ranting but I don’t care…because SpellCleaver, who’s one of my dear friends, has made this amazing, amazing story, that has inspired me, in terms of my fics, which are probably not as well done as this, but I try. And this has inspired them. But this fic, above anything else I have ever read(and that includes a lot of published novels), made me feel better about myself. I happened to be going through a rough time this summer but this fic helped me push through it. And if some of you haven’t read this, I hope this convinces you to go and read it. Because Heir is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I’ve seen in my entire life(and I’ve STUDIED art. Aka I put money into it), and it’s made my life better, and many times, it has brought me to tears. So thank you, SpellCleaver, for inspiring me, and for making me feel better about myself, and I hope you know what an absolute miracle you’ve worked.

~ HeartOfStars

#ahhhh STARS #THIS IS SUCH A SWEET SUBMISSION I'M SOBBING #I LOVE YOUUUUU #credit where credit it due #planningconquest came up with the stuffed animals idea #and slx99 came up with the sith possession thing #all my brainstorming buddies were absolutely INVALUABLE <3 #you especially Stars #AHHHHHHHHHHHH #the heir #luke palpatine #my writing #lovely things lovely people say #heartofstars #I'm sobbinggggg #submission

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pulpwriterx · 4 years

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THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME

(PART 1)

It was the longest elevator ride of his life.

And Rey was right there, within the reach of his arms, talking to him, intently.

But he wasn't listening to the meaning of the words.

Just the sound of her voice, as the words passed her lips.

Kylo Ren began thinking about all the things she could do to him with those lips…

“BEN!”

The word from his Master was like a slap in his face.

“Stop thinking about the girl. Especially about lovemaking. You have to focus.”

I’m sorry, grandfather. But what I was thinking about? It does not distract me. Are you sure this is our moment?

Ben, this is your moment. You have the skill, and the strength, and the power. You are my sword. Your hand is my hammer. My strength is in your blood. You are Darth Vader. You are Anakin Skywalker. You are not a child in a mask. You are a man. A Skywalker. A breaker of empires. Strike the monster down.”

But why does she have to be here? I don’t want Rey to get hurt.

“Because she fights. And Rey is your light, Ben. You can’t win this battle if the Light and the Darkness are not balanced within you. She will help you achieve that balance. And keep it.”

“I am ready.”

Kylo Ren said that aloud.

Rey stopped talking all that Uncle Luke nerfshit he hadn’t been paying attention to.

“What?” she asked.

He grabbed her, pulled her tight and close against his body and kissed her, desperately.

When they parted, they were both panting and flushed.

She didn’t look unhappy about it, and Rey hadn’t let go of him.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“Luck.” Ben said.

“When you smirk like that, you remind me of your father.”

The elevator doors slid open.

“Right now? I have to be. Just like the Old Man.” Kylo Ren replied.

***

“You are nothing, but not to me. Join me. Please.”

Everything else had gone as Kylo expected.

But not this.

Rey wasn’t falling into his arms, after completely understanding everything he said, and wanting to join him in it.

That was what he expected.

And it wasn’t happening.

Instead, Rey was looking at him like he was as much a Sith madman as Snoke was.

Ben began to panic.

She’s not buying it.

Holy Mother Force, I blew it, and I can’t let her go. I can’t.

Then stop talking about the Galaxy, you idiot. She knows nothing about your plan, or your journey. You must sound like a megalomaniac.

Say something personal.

Bare your soul; tear out your heart and hand it to her.

Do it!

NOW!!!

“Rey, I’m not asking you to join the First Order. Or the Sith. I’m asking to you to join me. Take my hand, Rey. My hand. The hand of the man who loves you. Desperately. I love you. I need you. I want you. Without you, I can’t take one more step on my journey toward balance in the Force.”

The expression on Rey’s face changed.

“You want me? As a woman? You want me to join you so we can be together? So we can…make love?”

There was a little tremor in her voice.

A little crack in the armor of nerfshit that a few months of trauma and training with his unhinged Uncle had welded onto her soul.

Kylo Ren moved closer to Rey.

“Oh gods, yes, Rey! I want us to make love! I want to ravish your beautiful little body, right fucking now!” he admitted.

Ardently.

Truthfully?

Rey was a little bit afraid.

But there was something crawling in her belly that was stronger than fear.

I don’t have to stay with him, forever.

Just long enough.

“Take your glove off.”

He did it.

And Rey took Kylo Ren's hand.

He hesitated, only for a moment, and then he pulled her into his arms.

Close to his trembling body.

He pulled off his other glove, put his hands on both sides of her face, and kissed her.

Rey groaned into his mouth and kissed him back.

Sparks flew, and not just the ones that fell from the sky.

They parted.

“Ben. Kylo. Take me to a safe place, away from this dying and make love to me. I don’t want the Galaxy. I want you. Be my teacher. Be my lover.”

“You want me? Really? It’s not a trick?”

Rey touched his face, put her fingers to his lips.

Tell him the truth.

For yourself.

“Does my body trembling in your arms feel like it’s lying? Yes, Ben. I want you. You’re such a beautiful man. I love your face. Your unconventionally beautiful face, your dark, saturnine good looks. You’re a mean, moody, magnificent bastard. A big, bad, black raging-bull of a man. You’re handsome as Hell, and I want to kiss all of your freckles. I lie awake at night, and I think about what you could do to me with your gorgeous, luscious mouth.”

Ben kissed her, again, this time more intimately.

Carnally.

He slipped to his knees.

“Ben, please! The ship is exploding. Showers of sparks are falling all around us. We can’t…”

But even as she spoke, Rey put her arms around him, crushing his head against her breasts.

“No. We are exploding. Those sparks are falling from our bodies. I’ve never been this close to you. I’ve ached to be this close to you, since the day we met.”

Ben wasn’t so bold as to try and liberate her breasts from her clothes, but he did nuzzle against a nipple with the end of his nose.

Rey’s body started to tremble in his arms.

To tremble under his hands.

“Oh, Ben, we’re so close, already. What we did in this room, it brought us so close. Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever been ravished, before. It sounds wonderful.” Rey said.

“It will be. I promise.”

Ben pulled away from her, and he started undressing.

“No! Not here! It’s full of dead people in here, and the ship is exploding!”

“Then you'll go with me, to my ship?”

“Yes. But that doesn’t mean I am joining your side.”

Ben stood up.

He was angry again.

Gods, if he stays angry, I will take my clothes off, right here!

“Here we go, again! Rey, I don’t have a…kark it. I’ll show you. I’ll show you what I’m talking about!” Kylo shouted, angrily pointing his finger in Rey’s face.

He ducked flying sparks, kicked aside a body, and went over to Master Snoke’s radio.

“Hux, this is Supreme Leader Ren. Stop firing.”

“What?”

“Stop firing on the Resistance. They’re finished. We can afford to be generous. If we want these people to accept our authority as their government, we have to show them that we are not just butchers. They have one ship. Let the survivors go.”

“What happened to Supreme Leader Snoke?”

“He died. Old men often do. Stop the attack and start getting our people into…she never gives up, does she? Phasma, stop! Can she hear me? Is she leaving FN2187 alone?”

“No.”

“Nobody on this ship understands what I’m trying to accomplish!”

Kylo Ren closed his eyes and moved one of his hands, abruptly.

“Why did you just move Captain Phasma into an escape pod? You can’t just pick people up and throw them...”

“Stop yammering, or I’ll pick you up and throw you! There’s no time! The ship is…Damn it, hux, put me on the karking Intercom, and get yourself to the Throne Room!”

Rey heard a loud click.

“Now hear this. This is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. I have good news. First? Old Man Snoke is dead. Also? We have defeated the Resistance. They crashed their last ship into ours. Which leads me to the bad news. The ship is compromised. Try not to panic. The more we panic, the more likely we all are to die. Everyone who would like to continue with me as Supreme Leader, abandon your posts and make your way to your escape pod or your vehicle. We will rendezvous on my Star Destroyer. Everyone who wants to remain loyal to Snoke is free to go down with this ship and die with him. Your choice. For those of you who are evacuating? Go now. Don’t go back to your quarters and pack. You don’t have time. And to General Pryde and my command crew? Execute Order Lucky Number 7. Over and out.”

Ben hung up the radio and made another communication.

“This is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren calling General Organa-Solo. Do you read me? Over.”

The response was immediate.

“Supreme Leader Kylo Ren? What happened to Supreme Leader Snoke?”

“What do you think happened? I killed him. Cut him in half with grandfather’s lightsaber. That’s as close to Darth Vader as he was ever going to get. I wish you could have seen the look on his face. He was so surprised. Like I’ll bet you are, right now. Can all your passengers hear me?”

“They can, now.”

“This is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. Snoke is dead. His war on the Resistance is over. I will be turning my attention, and the attention of the First Order to our common enemy. The Sith. Contrary to what you all believe, I am not a Sith Lord. I do not follow the Jedi, or the Sith. Mine is a New Path. But, as long as one Sith lives, I can’t follow that path. And there will be no peace in this Galaxy. None for me, and for the planets of the First Order. And none for you, and what you call the Free Planets. I will not be undertaking any more operations of conquest outside what the First Order had already claimed. We will be fighting the enemy, within. I don’t expect a surrender. But it is my hope that you will regroup, and when you have, that we might both fight our common enemy. General Organa-Solo, I would like to have a meeting with you, in the near future.”

“I’ll think about it, Supreme Leader.”

“May we speak, privately, again?”

Rey heard another click.

“Yes, Kylo?”

“Go to Ahch-To and get your brother. He needs a bath, a hot meal, a change of clothes and a warm place to sleep. Once he gets used to that, figure out something to get him to stay.”

“That bad?”

“He’s lost his mind. He’s turned into this crazy old hermit. It’s very sad, and he needs help. And lots of it. Before you go back to your base, go get him.”

“What about Rey?”

“I think he traumatized her. Rey looked better when she was fresh from starving in the desert. I’m not going to keep her against her will. Like Snoke kept me. I’ll give her a choice. That’s fair.”

“It’s also all I’m going to get. You’re getting better at this, kid.”

“I’d better. Because things are only going to get worse from here on out. I have to go. The ship is exploding. Over and out.”

***

“What happened?” Hux insisted.

“Nothing! I don’t see where that’s any of your business!” the girl snapped.

“I’m not talking about that! I mean why is everybody dead?” Hux clarified.

“Haven’t you ever heard of a coup? This is our day, Hux. A day for warriors. A day of Blood and Iron. A day for our gods to take pride in our work. Today, I am their hammer. Look around you. The fire? The blood? The death of our enemies. It’s our own private Ragnarok. Get Snoke’s head, Hux. And his hand. I want to make a mug from his skull. Hurry it up, the ship is on fire!”

“All the sudden, Ren, you’re a religious man?” Hux quipped.

“I didn’t know you were a religious man.” Rey interjected.

“I’m an Arkanian warrior. My life’s work is undertaken in the service of my ancient gods.” Hux explained

Ben grabbed Rey's hand.

“Talk later! Run, now!” he suggested.

He was soon pulling her along through the collapsing hallways.

“What about the Resistance?” Hux asked.

“I took care of that. How about I explain everything to you, later, when we’re safe on my ship. Don’t waste your breath, Armi! ]Run faster!”

***

All three of them had to run through the dying ship to get to Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter.

Rey couldn’t keep up, with the two long-legged men, and Ben was practically dragging her along.

She kept stumbling.

“Ben! Kylo! I can’t keep up with you!” she cried.

Kylo Ren picked her up and carried her.

Oh well.

At least I am going to die in his arms.

That’s stupid, but romantic.

A First Order General wearing both First Order and Imperial insignia was waiting for them.

Quite calmly.

“Supreme Leader Ren, the ship is cleared of our people.”

Ben looked around

“All these fools standing calmly at their posts, they want to die with Snoke?”

“You can’t force people to listen to reason.”

“Yes I can. Hux? The head.”

Ben stood up on a console, unwrapped Snoke’s head from the bloody cloak, and held it aloft.

“You have nothing more to fear from Old Man Snoke! There’s still one transport left. Come with me if you want to live!”

About half of the troopers and officers left their posts and began running towards their new leader.

Some were calm, some were begging for help or mercy, and some were openly crying, and reaching to touch Kylo Ren.

“Calm yourselves, my people. We are free, now. We don’t have to beg any man for mercy. But we all need to escape. Captain Phasma! As long as you are out of your escape pod! Help General Pryde get these people onto the last transport.”

“Are you going to make him into a mug?”

“Yes.”

Ben got down from the table, and he and General Hux and the two other officers herded a stream of souls onto the last transport.

By the time Rey took a second look around, there were less than a quarter of those who had been there, before, willing to go down with the ship.

“Phasma, Enric, get on the transport. Tell TX-1456 to take off, immediately. Your ship is bigger. You need the advantage.”

“You’ll never make it, we must take off together!” the General insisted.

“Then three people will die instead of a thousand. Go. That’s an order.”

***

The part of the Star Destroyer that the last transport took off from collapsed behind it.

The three of them, Rey, Hux and Kylo Ren barely made it to his TIE Fighter, and as it was, Ben had to take off at a 90 degree angle.

“Damn you, Ren, we’re all going to die!”

“Shut up, Hux! Buckle the girl in, first!”

Rey felt heat, and looked behind her.

“Fireball! Fireball!” she sobbed, giddy with fear.

The whole ship was imploding; there was no deck beneath them; everything was fire and ruin.

Instinctively, Hux embraced her, cradling her head against his chest.

“Don’t look! Don’t look! It will be over, soon.”

He reached for something inside his tunic, and began to recite something, in another language.

Rey thought it was Arkanian.

She hoped it was a savage prayer, to his ancient gods.

Who else would listen, at a time like this

Then the TIE Fighter was rolling and fading, and jumping to lightspeed.

All at once.

Rey felt sick.

She clung to her enemy, and he tightened his arms around her.

But they were still alive.

With Han gone, Ben really was the greatest pilot in the Galaxy.

Hux loosed his grip.

“Don’t let go. I’m going to pass out.” Rey said.

But Hux had already passed out.

“How about that for flying? Are you OK, back there?” Ben asked.

“Not really.” Rey told him.

Darkness called, and she answered.

***

General Pryde was waiting in the hangar.

He looked calm.

They all walked together, through the hangar

There was room on Kylo Ren's flagship Star Destroyer

“May I be the first to congratulate you, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren?”

“Not yet, General Pryde. Was the Order successful?”

“Entirely, Lord Ren.”

“What about any casualties among my troops and officers and personnel?”

“Not one?”

“Did we lose any escape pods? Fighters? Transports?”

“Not one. All of our people are present and accounted for.”

“Excellent. In that case, you may congratulate me, General Pryde. And General Hux has decided to join us.”

“And the charming young lady?”

“My Apprentice. Rey Skywalker. No relation. She has no family. No name. So, I have given her my family name. She deserves it.”

“You are fortunate, Miss Skywalker. Young Lord Vader comes from a long line of Masters of great skill in the Force.” the General told Rey.

“Like his grandfather. Anakin Skywalker.” Rey said, a bit defiantly.

“Yes. He was a great man. May the Force be with young Skywalker, that he too becomes as great.” Pryde replied, evenly.

Ben had turned to his other General.

“General Hux? The story is that my predecessor died. Old men do. But before he passed, he named me his successor.”

“No one will believe that! You showed them his bloody severed head! Even a fledgling Stormtrooper will know you killed him and took power. There will be fear in the ranks.”

“Probably. But there will also be awe. I am their liberator. I have liberated myself, and I have liberated those loyal to me. They will understand that. Now, if you will excuse me? My Apprentice and I are exhausted and covered in blood and gore. I am going to retire to my quarters and show her to hers.”

Hux scowled.

General Pryde nodded, crisply.

He put his hand on Ben’s shoulder.

“This day, Kylo? Your grandfather, Lord Vader, is proud of you. As am I.”

“Thank you, Enric. I know that he is. He was with me, this day.”

“You saw him? You spoke to my Lord Vader?”

“Yes, Enric. Now that I am liberated? I am able to communicate with my grandfather.”

“Then my life’s work is complete.”

“Not yet, General. We have much to do.”

Rey took all this in, using the Force to remain serene.

But the way Ben had flown to get them out of danger, the smell of death that clung to her, and the revolting memories of the charnel house that had been Snoke’s throne room?

It was catching up to her.

“But your Apprentice looks unwell, Supreme Leader. Perhaps you should assist her.” General Pryde said.

“I feel sick.” Rey said.

Ben swept her up, and carried her down many long, brightly lit and silvery hallways.

Too many for her to make it, without being sick, and answering, once more, when darkness beckoned

LINK TO CHAPTER TWO

#reylo week 2020 #reylo #star wars the last jedi #the last jedi fanfic #star wars the rise of skywalker #star wars the rise of skywalker fanfic #star wars fanfiction #reylo smut #ben solo redemption #supreme leader kylo ren #reylo myth #reylo myths and legends #reylo fairy tale elements

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ryder-s-block · 5 years

Text

Jaig Eyes (Ch 36)

Jaig Eyes (36/?)

Summary: Kida, a former slave who now thrives as a bounty hunter, finds herself sucked into the war she advised Jango Fett against. Now that she's involved, she has to finally mourn the loss of Jango, seeing his face in the clones that man the GAR. What happens when she allows herself to get attached to one, not for his resemblance to her former mentor, but for his heart?

Always can read on Fanfic.

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Chapter Thirty-Six: Ret’urcye mhi

I knew immediately that I wasn’t really in the room I was seeing. There was a haziness to it, blurring the edges of my vision as if I was squinting hard. The room reminded me of the control center on the Republic frigates, with a holographic console in the center. However, instead of rows upon rows of computers and military personnel, the room expanded into a type of amphitheater. Benches encircled the room, rising up to various levels until they ended at doors on all sides. All of which were closed and locked, it seemed.

I was standing a few rows up, looking down at a group of creatures clad in jedi robes. I recognized the clean-shaven head of Windu immediately, watching his brow crease as he spoke quietly with a little green jedi--Yoda.

Others stood around that I recognized only slightly from either brief encounters, discussions with Anakin and Obi-wan, or from reports I read as a bounty hunter. There was a Twi’lek with magnificent blue skin, her expression passive as she eyed the holoprojector as if she were waiting for it to engage. There was also a female Tholothian, who stood beside a Nautolan I didn’t know. Still, the smile he gave his companion jarred my memory. I’d seen his likeness painted on a Republic attack shuttle, along with the Auberesh words, “Service with a smile.” Fisto. Even bounty hunters knew about him.

The holoprojector hummed to life, revealed more jedi, all standing rather rigid. Some I recognized, such as Plo Koon and Shaak Ti. Others, I didn’t. In the end, there were a total of eleven jedi, both physically present and holographically beamed in.

I’d never seen so many jedi in one place before. It actually unnerved me.

My nerves only got worse when a final hologram appeared, revealing Obi-wan, Anakin standing behind him silently. Anakin’s face was drawn in worry, as if he was lost in deep thought.

“Obi-wan,” Windu started, drawing the attention of all jedi present. “You called an emergency meeting. What happened with Dooku?” My heart stopped at his words. It was a Jedi Council meeting. Something told me, from Windu’s words, that the meeting was about me.

Obi-wan fidgeted slightly, glancing back to exchange a sad look with Anakin before speaking to the Council. “He escaped, as he has in the past. But my report is not of how we lost him, but how we survived him.”

Yoda hummed lowly, leaning on his cane. “Moved, the Force has. Felt it, we did.”

“Yes, Master Yoda,” Obi-wan said respectfully. “Anakin and I had been captured, as well as all of our men. Kida kept everyone from being executed, ourselves included.”

“How was she not captured with the rest of the army?” Shaak Ti’s hologram asked, her accented voice soft, but strong.

“Her ship had been shot down amidst our battle, Master,” Anakin jumped into the conversation, seeming almost eager. “She survived the crash and managed to find us on Vandor.”

Windu stood silently, rubbing his jaw. “Kida’s involvement in your rescue is related to this shift in the Force, isn’t it?”

“She saved our lives,” Anakin started, practically desperate to speak. “She just needs guidance.”

It registered that Skywalker was trying his best to protect me.

“Yes, Master,” Obi-wan cut in, giving Anakin a look. “I had known she was Force sensitive, and that she had a powerful Force signature. But I could never have foreseen…” His words trailed off, as if he was hesitating to say anything further.

“What has she done?” Windu asked, his voice harsh. I crinkled my nose at him, almost wanting to go over and hit him. I wasn’t really in the room, of course, so I could have at least pretended.

But something whispered in my mind that the Force was enabling me to see this for a reason. And that if the Force was doing it, the jedi could possibly sense me. So I wasn’t going to be Force-slapping any jedi masters at that moment.

“Awakened, her abilities have.” Yoda wasn’t responding to Windu. Nor was he asking a question. He said it like he was merely musing the concept. Like he had been meditating, rather than listening to the report. He opened his wrinkled eyes slowly, gazing sadly to Obi-wan. “Dangerous, she has become. Powerful.”

The entire Council turned to watch Obi-wan respond. Only Anakin looked away, his face a conflict of emotions.

“She stood up to Dooku,” Kenobi said slowly. “She displayed abilities even I don’t have.” His face was almost wistful as he continued. “She’d always been connected to the Force--we’ve all felt that. But there was a moment in that room, when she chose to reveal herself, that the Force seemed to flow through her endlessly.”

“I’d never felt anything like it,” Anakin spoke quietly. “It didn’t feel like when a jedi uses the Force, or when a Sith does. It was entirely...different.”

“Untamed,” Obi-wan offered.

“Dangerous,” Windu countered, crossing his arms. “Far too dangerous to have leading troops in this war.”

“Master, she saved our lives. And it wasn’t the first time she’s put herself at risk for the Republic.” Anakin’s words were kind, but the other jedi didn’t seem as hopeful as him.

“Her actions may be good now, Skywalker,” Shaak Ti reasoned gently, quieting the younger jedi. “But someone so powerful with no teaching in the ways of the Force could be tempted easily.”

“Obi-wan was giving her lessons,” Anakin responded, making my eyebrows raise. I wondered briefly if Skywalker had known before or if that information was just him being filled in after my reveal. “He could continue to teach her.”

“She’s too old,” Plo Koon finally spoke, his voice metallic through his mouth piece. To my surprise, the Council seemed to be bickering as I watched. I’d always imagined their meetings to be quaint and tight lipped. And maybe they usually were.

I had a talent for rubbing people the wrong way, it seemed.

“Masters,” Obi-wan said loudly, bringing the discussions to a standstill. “She’s already felt the draw to the Dark Side,” he confessed, his expression sad. “And caved to it.”

My chest got tight as the room remained silent, the Force rippling with their shared concern. The first to make a sound was Yoda, his head shaking as he hummed sadly.

“Too late, we so often are. Clouded, our vision is.” His words weren’t exactly what I expected.

“She’s had a hard life,” Anakin added in gently. “A slave. Tortured for years. She’s lost everything. Watched her only parent die. All she’s known is war.”

“As have you, young Skywalker,” a Cerean with a white beard said softly. “Yet here you stand.”

Maybe it was because my unconscious body was near Skywalker, or maybe it was because he was so intensely strong with the Force that I felt his emotions shift. They twisted and swelled with frustration.

“I’ve had training. I have the Jedi Order. She’s had nothing!”

“Made it difficult to see, this war has. Hidden from us, many children are.” I assumed Yoda was referring to the Force-sensitive kids the jedi would take from their homeworlds to come and live in the temple.

“Even you, Skywalker,” the Twi’lek said, her voice pleasantly accented. “We would have not have found had Obi-wan and Qiu Gon not had to land there.” I wondered if that was due to the darkness of the times or that Tatooine was an outer rim planet. You didn’t hear about a whole lot of kids coming in from the Outer Rim to be a jedi.

“The past cannot be changed,” Windu spoke in his baritone voice. “We must decide what to do now.”

The room was quiet for a moment until Anakin spoke on my behalf. “She’s not a bad person. She hasn’t fallen yet. She was desperate to save us. That one moment shouldn’t be the only deciding factor in her fate.”

“Anakin is right,” Obi-wan joined his former padawan. “Kida has proven herself again and again. One mistake should not doom her.”

“These are dangerous waters we are wading into,” Fisto voiced. “She is too old to become a jedi. But her apparent abilities are too strong to be left untamed. Especially in the Republic army.”

“They’ve never been a problem before,” Anakin interrupted.

“Admittedly,” Plo Koon agreed with a nod of his head. “Her inclination towards the Force may even have saved your life, Master Windu.”

Windu hummed lowly, touching his knuckle to his chin. “Admiral Killian has only ever spoken highly of the girl,” he allowed. “And we cannot deny the good she has done for the Republic and its assets.”

“Perhaps,” the Tholothian leapt in. “But then we must not deny the bad. She is a bounty hunter, after all.”

“Not all bounty hunters are inherently criminals,” Shaak Ti voiced. “Nor should we resort to any possible criminal past to punish her, as we were more than happy to work with her under that pretense before.” The Torgruta sighed, tucking her hands into her pooling sleeves. “We must remember that we have bounty hunters within our GAR even here in the training facilities. If we turn on one for her past as a bounty hunter, we could lose them as well.”

“Indeed, not to mention that the bounty hunters on Kamino knew Kida well,” Obi-wan added thoughtfully. “Many bounty hunters respect Kida for both her abilities and her connection to Jango Fett.”

“Not just bounty hunters,” Plo Koon said. “But she’s done jobs for many crime syndicates, as well.”

“And you think they or a bounty hunter would leap to her defense?” the Cerean asked skeptically.

“Likely not,” Fisto responded. “But as per your previous reports, she has a close connection with the Hutt Clan. Is that bond close enough that it would jeopardize our ability to travel through Hutt space?” He was addressing Obi-wan now.

“I don’t know,” the jedi admitted. “But I know that what connection she did have, it was with Jabba himself. He would be the one to determine if our safe travel remained.”

“This issue is no longer if she was a bounty hunter,” the Twi’lek interrupted. “We are now discussing the threats of what loyalties she holds, should we act against her at all.”

Obi-wan hummed while he stroked his beard. “Yes, Kida has quite a reputation, not just in the underworld, but even in the Republic now.”

“The men look up to her,” Anakin added softly. “And I know there are quite a few senators who consider her a friend.”

“Difficult, this decision is,” Yoda allowed. “Inside the web of our war, she is tied.”

“Obi-wan,” Windu said curtly, commanding attention. “Is she or is she not to be considered a threat?”

My friend was quiet for a long moment before breathing slowly. “She is genuinely a good person. She cares for others. That’s why she even agreed to join this war. She is skilled. Concise. Practiced.” His words tapered off as he looked around. “The last time we discussed this girl’s fate, I gave my word that she wouldn’t be a threat. That her biology did not make her dangerous.”

I sat heavily on one of the benches, knowing he was about to say “but.”

“But,” there it was. “The way it felt when she used the Force was unlike anything. At first, it was just unruly, but unbelievably powerful. And then Dooku began talking. He got inside her head and the entire room shifted. It was like the Dark Side blossomed from inside her. It overpowered everything in the room. She could have defeated Dooku on her own, had she not stopped herself.”

“She stopped herself?” Shaak Ti asked for clarification.

“Yes. She stopped and the darkness faded when she saw me. It seems,” Obi-wan sighed sadly. “That our opinion has quite an effect on her.”

“That was what Dooku used against her,” Anakin jumped in, his voice dark. “He used her fear of what the Council would think. Of what you’d do to her because she used her abilities.”

“Dangerous, fear is. A path to the Dark Side, fear is.” Yoda hummed in thought as the conversations about my fate resumed.

“We cannot have her in our military. If she turned, she could bring us all down,” the Cerean voiced.

“Decommission her then,” Fisto offered. “She can return to her life of bounty hunting none the wiser.”

“She knew what happened in that room, Master,” Obi-wan argued gently. “It’s...changed her. I’ve never felt her afraid like that before.”

“We cannot leave her to wander with these new abilities,” an Iktotchi male said from the holograms. “It would leave her open to fall to the Dark Side’s temptations. Especially with Dooku now knowing her power.”

“Prison?” the Twi’lek asked, glancing around the room. “She would be contained. Easily monitored. Her adoptive brother is there, as well. It may even be good for the both of them.”

Anakin shook his head, chuckling darkly. “She can be trusted. She doesn’t need to be put in a prison.”

“Nor do I know if that would stop our worries,” Windu allowed. “Should her powers swell like they did against Dooku, she could massacre the prison. Or stage a break out.”

“You all sound like you want to kill her!” Anakin yelled, looking around at the placid faces. His own expression fell. “Is that what you’re planning to do?”

“It is something we must consider,” Shaak Ti said gently. “As a last resort, should she complete her fall. Destroying the Sith is the duty of the jedi.”

The Council was quiet as they faced that possibility. It comforted me that they at least didn’t seem like they wanted to straight up murder me. Of course, that didn’t take away from the sting of the fact that they were considering murdering me anyways.

“Obi-wan,” Yoda’s voice cut through the tension, drawing my gaze back to his small stature. “Holding something back, you are.”

Anakin and Obi-wan both fidgeted uncomfortably, the younger of the two looking away entirely. His face was warped with distress. Sadness. Anger.

“Yes, Master Yoda,” Obi-wan allowed finally, heaving a slow breath. “When the darkness within her rose to its peak, Kida spoke words I’m sure she was never told before, since she knows little of the jedi and the sith.”

He was hesitating to speak. Even I wondered for a brief moment what he meant until I recalled the horrible voice in my head. And the words it had fed into my mind.

“What did she say?” Windu asked cautiously.

Obi-wan glanced around the room, his blue eyes wide with distress. “It wasn’t the whole thing, but I’m sure it’s what it was.” That didn’t answer any questions. The room seemed to feel the same as me, leaning a bit closer to entice the words from Kenobi’s mouth. He let out another slow breath. “The Dark Side took over, even if it was only for a few moments, when she recited the final lines of the Code of the Sith.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I bolted upright, my body complaining from the sharp movement. My right shoulder in particular twinged, reminding me of the lightsaber wound I’d received there. A part of me wanted to roll my eyes. Yet another scar to add to the long list.

And then I was jolted back to reality when I felt Anakin’s frustrated presence aboard the same ship as me. Near his signature was Obi-wan’s, which admittedly, didn’t seem to be much more content than his counterpart.

I hadn’t been able to hear what decision they’d made. Maybe they hadn’t even made one yet. The hairs on my arms stood up as I thought about the last thing Obi-wan had said. I’d recited the Sith Code. The voice in my head...it was sith. Despite that, I was still confused. The voice in my head had saved me. Had saved my friends.

And now the jedi were possibly plotting my murder.

My fear made me hyper aware of the room. A monitor beeped beside me, electrodes slipping under the red fatigues I was dressed in. My armor and weapons, battered as they were, lay piled in the corner. The wide viewport beside my bed showed that we were nestled in a small fleet of Republic ships, the stars looking dim against the bright lights of the cruisers.

I swallowed thickly before swinging my legs over the side of the hospital bed, my body complaining. I turned off the monitor quickly. My energy was sapped, but I was being driven by fear for my own safety.

Despite not wanting to listen to Dooku, I couldn’t help but hear his words in my mind as I gathered my things in my arms.

“You’re afraid. Afraid of what the Council will do with you.”

I swallowed again, pulling the pillowcase loose and throwing my things inside, leaving out my wrist gauntlet. Tugging on my boots, I slung the crisp white pillowcase I’d fashioned into a bag over my shoulder. I’d blend in more in the red fatigues, despite my obvious uniqueness from the clones.

My wrist gauntlet still worked, thank Ka’ra. I tapped it to life, Apex lighting up since I was back in a signal range, aboard a frigate.

“I’m glad to see you’re alright, miss,” Apex said immediately.

But I had no time for pleasantries. “Exit strategy. Now. And keep it quiet.”

“Of course.” Thankfully, despite the AI’s inclination towards sassy disobedience, his systems were smart enough to know when not to talk back and just do what he’s told. The screen on my wrist gauntlet flickered with his calculations as I exited my room silently.

The halls were filled with wandering clones, some in their red fatigues, but most in their armor.

“Afraid of what your friends will think,” I heard Dooku’s voice say again. His words urged me forward, my eyes on the floor as I passed through the halls.

With no official exit strategy, I didn’t realize where my feet were taking me until I found myself entering the corridor filled with officers’ quarters. The tickle in the back of my mind told me that Rex was inside his room, trying to sleep. He was restless, though, tossing his body sideways in an attempt to get comfortable.

His rest had likely been an order from Skywalker, considering the clone captain had been electrocuted multiple times that day.

Was it the same day?

I realized I didn’t actually know if it was.

I swallowed thickly, hearing my wrist gauntlet beep. It drew my eye, the screen showing the way through a diagram of the frigate. It led to the escape pods.

“I’m not taking a pod,” I hissed. I almost wished Windu was aboard, but I knew from my vision that he was back in the temple on Coruscant. I would’ve enjoyed stealing his starfighter again.

And considering he seemed to be gently advocating for my death, I wouldn’t have returned it this time.

“I’ve dispatched Pinky with your shuttle. She should be there by the time you escape. After you’ve concluded whatever you plan on doing once you get your ass moving.” Ah. The cheek was back.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, turning down his volume.

As he quieted towards a total mute, I heard him say, “A thank you would be nice.” I didn’t give him one, sensing Rex stirring again inside his room. I wondered if he’d heard me outside. It didn’t matter. I steeled myself and stepped forward, rapping my knuckles against the cold metal door.

His head shot up immediately, trained to be tense. To be suspicious. To be a target in war. His movements were slow behind the door. Practiced and silent. There was a pistol in his hand as he pressed the button that opened the door.

“It amazes me that you can be paranoid even on your own ship,” I said as the door hissed open.

Rex didn’t respond, merely staring at me in shock. A million questions swam in his gaze, but he couldn’t seem to get any of them out. I rolled my eyes--a faked ease that I was using to cover the terrified trembling in my knees--and pushed past him into his room.

The quarters were small, with a single bed with starched clean sheets, a table for his armor, which was piled neatly upon it, and a night stand where his other pistol laid. A door at the back corner led to what I assumed was the fresher.

“Kida,” he said finally, his voice gruff. “You’re up.”

“How long was I out?”

My curt response seemed to take him off guard. “Not...not as long as we thought you would be. Not even a full day. You were barely responsive at all when we first got you aboard.”

I nodded slowly. “You carried me. Thank you.”

“You saved my life first.” His voice was gentle, but I knew he was itching to understand.

I sat on the edge of his bed--an action which only heightened his nerves--and regarded the man slowly. He was in his blacks, but he didn’t seem comfortable at all. He fidgeted in front of me, standing as straight as he would when addressing a superior. His trigger finger tapped endlessly at the side of his pistol.

“You have questions.” His golden gaze, which had been fixated on the wall, cut to me sharply. He didn’t have to speak, since I could practically hear his growled ‘duh.’ I sighed slowly. “You already knew I could use the Force.”

“You said you couldn’t use it like the jedi.” He was suddenly defensive. Suspicious. For some reason, his reaction hurt me more than the jedi likely planning my death.

“I wasn’t lying, Rex.”

“Then what would you call what you did on Vandor?”

“I’d call it saving your life,” I bit, my own frustration flaring. Still, I felt that darkness lurking at the edge of my mind. I silenced my rising anger, afraid of what would be waiting for me down that path. “I didn’t… I’ve never done anything like that before. I didn’t even know I could.”

Maybe it was the brokenness of my voice or the surprising water that was rising in my eyes that made Rex’s anger melt away. Slowly, he moved to sit beside me, the bed shifting under me as his weight joined mine.

“That was...incredible,” he offered, still in shock.

“It was terrifying,” I countered, glancing sideways at him. “And it’s ruined everything.”

His golden eyes narrowed in thought at my words. “What do you mean? We’re all alive because of you.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice it, Rex. I can feel your fear. You’re trying to hide it from me, but I can feel it.”

The captain grumbled lowly. “Using the Force isn’t fair.”

“I’m not a jedi,” I argued. “I’m a bounty hunter. We don’t play fair. Now stop avoiding the subject.”

He was quiet for a moment before answering. “I’ve always enjoyed watching you fight. I’ve described it to you before that it’s almost like you’re dancing. But in that chamber on Vandor...something changed.”

“Because I used the Force?”

“No.” Rex shook his head. “There was a moment when your face just...turned. You weren’t desperate to save us. You weren’t even trying to save yourself. You were just...angry. Your goal had shifted from saving...to destroying.”

“I know,” I breathed. “It scares me too.”

He breathed slowly. “Have you talked to General Skywalker? Maybe he could--”

“I have to leave, Rex.” It hurt me to cut him off. It hurt me to say those words. The look of shock on his face faded to sadness and betrayal.

“Wha-- why?”

“The Jedi Council didn’t trust me before all of this. They certainly won’t trust me now. Even now, they’re trying to figure out how to either control me, or kill me.”

“Kida,” Rex sighed. “General Kenobi would never allow--”

“Kenobi is the one who’s been reporting on me to the Council. I’m sorry, Rex but it’s true.” I paused, glancing down at my hands. “One of their options is to kill me.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“I saw it, Rex. I saw them talking.”

“How…” his words tapered off. “The Force?” he asked, to which I nodded. “I won’t let them. No one is going to hurt you.”

“You know you couldn’t stop them if you tried, Rex,” I said gently. “I need to go. You know this. I need to figure out what this thing that’s calling me is. Learn how to control…” I looked at my hands again. “This.”

He swallowed slowly, his mind a whirlwind of emotions. “You don’t have to run away from this, Cyare.”

“I’m trying not to die.”

“We can face this.”

“Stop it, Rex.” He stopped, watching my face carefully at my stern voice. “They will never let me be free. I have to figure this out on my own. Without the jedi’s influence. Without the Republic.”

“Without me,” he completed dejectedly. I’d never heard him speak in such a way before.

“I didn’t say that.” Rex looked up in shock, meeting my stormy gaze. I wondered if it was the fear that was giving me such courage in a subject I barely knew. “Come with me,” I whispered, leaning over to grab his wrist gently.

I let him sit in silence, thinking over my words. They were big. And it would be tough for him. His arm turned over slowly, his long fingers curling around my wrist in turn. A small, hopeful smile came to my face.

“No.”

My smile melted, my hand drawing away. His fingers caught mine, though, keeping me from pulling away entirely.

“Look at me,” he said softly, tilting his head to try and meet my eyes again. “Please, cyare, look at me.” I finally did, seeing pain, but also genuinity on his face. “I can’t go. You know that. My duty is here.”

“It could be with me,” I surprised myself with my words. They were practically breathed out from between my lips, carried with a surprising amount of sorrow.

His forehead wrinkled in pain. “It can’t be. You know that. I can’t desert.”

I looked at my lap again, finally successfully pulling my hand from his grasp. “Right. It was stupid to ask.” I stood, stooping to scoop up my pillowcase bag again.

“Cyare,” he sighed, moving to stand with me. “Kida,” he tried again, failing to make me turn still. His hand grasped my upper arm firmly, turning me to face him by force. “This isn’t easy for me.”

“You could have fooled me, Rex.” I tried to pull away, but Rex’s grip was impressively tight.

“Kida you don’t understand. I don’t call you cyare lightly. I don’t take my feelings for you lightly.”

They were words I’d wanted to hear for a long time. Since we’d been marooned at Cut’s farmhouse. But in that moment, they were almost sour. I’d have preferred he yelled. Preferred he was afraid, even.

I wished that he wanted me to go. That he never wanted to see me again.

This affection, but refusal to go...it hurt too much.

“I have to go, Rex,” I said softly, my voice more broken sounded than I wanted it to be.

“Kida,” he whispered, drawing closer. His lips were by my ear, his breath tickling the wisps of hairs there. “Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.”

My eyes closed, tears leaking out when I hadn’t given them permission to do so. I’d never heard those words before. They were beautiful, even in the harsh dialect of Mando’a. But while they were amazing and enveloped me in a warmth, they also stung like daggers. In a burst of emotion, I turned in his grasp, my free hand coming up to grab the front of his black shirt. I pulled his tall frame down, lifting my head to press my lips against his.

He seemed shocked for only a short beat before his other hand came up to rest on my cheek, the first still wrapped around my upper arm. His lips were softer than I would have imagined them to be, considering he was a soldier. Then again, they were fed all of the nutrients they needed to stay as physically inclined as possible. I guess that led to health all around.

The kiss was messy at first as the intelligent man quickly learned the new experience. It didn’t take him long to take over, the hand on my arm releasing to curl around my waist. It was inexperienced. Messy. Frantic. Emotional.

And wonderful.

It practically hurt my lips to pull away. My fist, still clenched in the front of his shirt, released slowly to push his chest backwards. Our breathing was a bit shorter as we stood in silence, quiet tears still sliding down my face.

One of his rough thumbs lifted to wipe them from my cheek. I caught his hand, pushing it away as well.

I sniffed slowly. “Maybe you do,” I finally whispered in response to his words. “But it’s not enough for you to come with me.”

The hurt that radiated off of him stung like a whip across my shoulders. I drew away from him, his door opening at the press of my hand. He followed like he was in a daze, stopping only when he reached the threshold of his room.

“Kida,” he breathed. I could tell he was desperate for words, but there were none for him to speak.

“Goodbye, Rex,” I whispered. “Ret’urcye mhi.”

The captain was silent, staring sadly at me as the door hissed closed between us. I angrily held back a sob that threatened to come up my throat before glancing at my wrist gauntlet.

I followed the path Apex had planned for me diligently, my eyes glued to the floor, fingers curled tight around the pillowcase. The escape pods were unguarded, as would make sense since my departure from the medical wing had yet to be noticed.

I opened one, setting my bag inside.

“Kida.” I turned at the familiar voice, a part of me wishing it belonged to Rex. I knew it didn’t, though.

“Please don’t try to stop me, Anakin,” I responded gently, seeing the jedi standing outside the escape pod.

“Where are you going?”

I didn’t answer his question. “Did the Council decide what they wanted to do with me?”

Anakin’s eyes widened for only a moment before he pieced it together. “They’re...still undetermined.”

“I’m not sticking around to wait for them to decide how to kill me.”

“They won’t-” he started, but his words faltered. Even he doubted if they would keep me alive. He breathed through his nose. “It’s wrong of them not to trust you. You saved our lives.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “But they’re right in that there’s a darkness speaking to me. I need to figure out what it is. I need to learn to control this.”

“The jedi can--”

“Not from the jedi, Anakin. You know I wouldn’t do well with your...rules.”

“Well, neither do I,” he argued. “But with us, you can still do good. Like you wanted to.” Over his shoulder, a clone in 501st armor appeared, his blond hair buzzed short. Rex. He seemed like he’d been running to catch up, but stopped suddenly when he saw Anakin.

It seemed duty would win out again.

“I can’t stay, Anakin,” I said softly, looking away from Rex’s desperate gaze to meet the jedi’s again.

His blue eyes were conflicted, but I could tell the conflict didn’t lie with me. “I know,” he said finally. “Please…be careful.”

I smiled sadly in the doorway, my hand lifting to press the door key that would seal me in and launch me from the port. “You too.” With that, the doors hissed closed and the thrusters engaged, sending me away from the frigate and the GAR, towards where I knew Pinky would be waiting to pick me up.

In the tiny viewport, I saw Rex’s face, his face drawn harshly with sorrow, shrinking as I put more distance between us.

-----------------------------

MANDO’A

Ka’ra-- stars (ancient mandalorian myth--ruling council of fallen kings)

Cyare-- beloved

Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum--I love you

Ret’urcye mhi-- Maybe we’ll meet again (Goodbye)

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makeste · 6 years

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KHR 071: Miniboss Fight Bingo (Part 1)

Okay, get ready, everyone, because this chapter has (part one of) Tsuna VS Lancia, which in hindsight is such an outrageously cliched shounen fight that after rereading it, I went ahead and made this:

Let’s see how long it takes us to win this thing.

So! Last time we left off, Yamamoto was facing off with Lancia while Tsuna was running aimlessly through the woods thinking about how that mysterious evil kid from the forest was acting really mysterious and evil.

However, Tsuna recalls that Fuuta was also acting weird, which goes a long way towards his excusing Mukuro’s strange behavior. But then I think to myself: “So if he thought that ~MYSTERIOUS KID~ really was innocent and was just being manipulated or something, WHY DID HE LEAVE HIM ALL ALONE IN THE WOODS AGAIN.” And the answer is… …. ……………………… um

It actually was kind of funny though, in hindsight.

Back to the fight! Yamamoto got hit by Lancia’s ball and chain and is now lying on the ground emitting smoke for some reason!

WHY THOUGH

Then there’s another panel of Gokudera being so worried about Yamamoto! Intellectually, I know that Gokudera having feelings of empathy doesn’t automatically equate to them being soulmates or anything! But emotionally I don’t even care, I am already on board this ship and it sailed ten fucking years ago and I don’t know where I am anymore! So you’ll just have to live with me enjoying my 8059 angst!

TWO EXCLAMATION POINTS MOTHERFUCKER

All right, and here we go. Brace yourselves and get those cards out, because Lancia is about to start monologuing.

Wow guy could you just cool it there for a sec

Can we count this as “it’s no use”? Eh, for the time being I’m going to play things straight. So no score as of yet, but we’re only just getting started.

So upon hearing this, Gokudera tries to stand up EVEN THOUGH HE’S DYING because HE IS HEROIC AND BRAVE

“Trying to stand up and failing” is pretty much all he manages to do for this entire chapter, so I have to give him whatever props I can while the giving is good.

BUT WAIT, WHAT’S THIS

LANCIA: ABANDON ALL HOPE

YAMAMOTO TAKESHI: (୨୧ ❛ᴗ❛)✧

THIS CHEEKY MOTHERFUCKER. I NEED AN MP3 RECORDING OF YAMAMOTO SAYING “OI OI” TO SET AS MY DAMN RINGTONE

LOOK AT GOKUDERA’S “HE’S ALIVE” FACE

I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO INTERPRET THAT FACE BUT IT’S GREAT

Also nice to see that Bianchi has finally set aside her own differences with Yamamoto! Things were a little dicey there for a while.

Not to spoil things here, but my guess: It’s probably something really stupid that makes absolutely no sense.

Lancia continues to monologue at them all like some sort of Sith Lord, and throws his giant ball at Yamamoto again.

Incredibly, I didn’t have “it is foolish to resist” on my card either. Lancia is so cliché that I couldn’t fit all of his damn clichés on a 5x5 card, goddamn.

Anyway! Yamamoto, who you have to remember at this point has no kind of formal sword training—or any sort of fighting training, really—whatsoever, then instinctively goes right into one of the Shigure Souen Ryu defensive forms, only using the dirt and his bat rather than water and Shigure Kintoki.

Can we give this boy some fucking props because damn. Seriously, though, this is Surging Rain. Completely untaught. This kid is a fucking legend.

So he uses the dirt he just swept up to track the ball’s rotation. It doesn’t make much sense but it seems to work within the context of the series so let’s just roll with it.

WHY IS HE SO CUTE!!!

Reborn then explains that Lancia’s ball and chain weapon works via the power of bullshit.

Look, I’m not a physicist or anything, I’m just your everyday layperson reading a shounen manga who is nonetheless telling you this is bullshit. If you go over to NASA and ask them if you can create a tornado using a grooved wrecking ball, they are going to say no, once they stop laughing long enough to speak.

But then again, a girl was microwaving things with her clarinet two chapters ago, and another girl turned that clarinet into toxic food sludge simply by touching it, so I’m not sure what it is I’m actually complaining about. I guess it’s that they tried to fudge a scientific explanation when they could have just said “magic” and it basically would have amounted to the same thing lol.

I’LL STOP RANTING ABOUT THIS NOW.

So Lancia doesn’t give a fuck if they’ve “figured it out” or not, and goes on the attack again. Yamamoto charges in, thinking he can avoid it now, and oh no

—THERE IT IS!!!! FUCK YEAH

SWEET, WE’RE OFFICIALLY ON THE BOARD

Okay, I just want to press pause here for a sec and acknowledge that Lancia threw this thing at Takeshi again, Takeshi dodged it, and then the thing just magically changed direction and started going the complete opposite way, at the same time creating this fucking whirlwind somehow, that FUCKING LIFTS YAMAMOTO UP IN THE AIR. Like, this is a really entertaining fight, but it’s also just. SO ABSURD. NOTHING ABOUT IT MAKES ANY SENSE.

ANYWAY THIS THING’S ABOUT TO HIT HIM LIKE A WALL SO BRACE YOURSELVES

Oh my god right in the babymaker

AND YOU’VE UPSET THE BOYFRIEND AGAIN

1. You bitch, and 2. We know you’ve already said that, please say something new so I can update my bingo card again please and thank you.

YEEEESSSSSSSS [FISTPUMP]

Gokudera is all like “DAMN YOU” and trying to stand up to protect Yamamoto but then he falls down again because of his plot ailment!

NO MY SONS, ALSO, I’M LOVING IT THOUGH

BIANCHI GOES FULL GANDALF AND IT’S AMAZING!!

AAAAAAAAAAHHH

AND THEN LANCIA DELIVERS THE CLASSIC “ONLY USING X PERCENT OF MY STRENGTH” LINE, AND WE’RE ON FUCKING FIRE NOW WITH THIS BINGO SHIT

WHAT A SHOWDOWN

Time for Tsuna to finally blunder in just in the nick of time!

“WHERE IS EVERYONE—HOLY FUCK”

But then he sees that all his friends are either dead or dying and Bianchi is all on her own (REBORN WHO?!) protecting Yamamoto because she’s a goddamn hero!

And then Tsuna’s face does this.

LOOK AT THAT INSTANT 180 IN DEMEANOR. HE’S JUST ONE OR TWO RAGES SHORT OF JUMPING STRAIGHT INTO DYING WILL MODE RIGHT THERE ON THE FUCKING SPOT

Tsuna I love you so much and I want to write another rant about you becoming a different person all of a sudden when your friends’ welfare is at stake, but I think I’ve made my point on that already in past recaps lmao

Still, this is great.

Then a split second later he realizes what he’s actually done, and

SOB

Tsuna has no idea what to do. Until Lancia turns back to Bianchi and says he’ll just kill her first.

Then Tsuna knows what to do.

REBORN SHOOTS THE DYING WILL BULLET, BUT ALSO MAKES THE MISTAKE OF SAYING OUT LOUD THAT IT’S THE LAST ONE THEY HAVE. THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER PROBABLY

ANYWAY

He actually moved to catch it before the bullet fully took effect. I choose to believe he was already in motion when Reborn shot him, because even if he hadn’t been in Dying Will mode he was still going to catch that thing one way or the other.

AH THE NOSTALGIA

Tsuna is SO ANGRY he SWITCHES TO A DIFFERENT FUCKING FONT TO SHOW HOW ANGRY HE IS

Reborn again says out loud that THIS IS OUR FINAL TRUMP CARD!! JUST FOR ANYONE WHO MIGHT SECRETLY BE LISTENING! NOW YOU KNOW! AFTER THIS WE HAVE NOTHING LEFT!!!!

Come to think of it, wasn’t there some guy in the very last chapter who said he was going to watch and wait for the Arcobaleno to show his hand first?

Uh oh

You were fucking timing him, Chikusa?

Yeah it is the last one. Yeah they have completely fallen into it.

HOW MANY FUCKING STEPS ARE THERE

Back to Tsuna!

This one’s not on the card either, but least they got him to say something other than “THE END IS NIGH REPENT YOUR SINS HEAR ME AND REJOICE YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE AT THE HANDS OF THE CHILDREN OF THANOS”

Lancia sticks to his one trick, unaware that Tsuna is the main character and this shit’s not going to work this time.

I LOVE THIS PANEL. THE BLURRY MOTION LINES ON TSUNA’S ARM. LANCIA’S HEAD TILTING BACK. THE RAW “OOOOMPHH” IN THIS MAGNIFICENT UPPERCUT. This was back in the days before we had fancy schmancy X-Burners and the like! Back in the days when problems were solved WITH OUR FISTS. LIKE MEN!!!

Bianchi and Reborn watch like proud parents from the sidelines.

Lancia does a backflip for no reason and then Kamehamehas the ground!

Tsuna catches the ball and chain again because NEWS FLASH LANCIA YOU CAN’T BEAT HIM LIKE THIS

And then to add insult and injury, Tsuna Kamehamehas that shit RIGHT BACK AT HIM

oof

Without checking to make sure Lancia is actually dead, Bianchi and Reborn start patting themselves on the back and making celebratory dinner plans.

Mukuro and Chikusa watch from the window. Mukuro admits he’s surprised, but…

Holy shit. You know what that means, kids. SAY IT, LANCIA. SAY IT YOU COWARD!!!!

MOTHERFUCKER HE REALLY SAID IT!!!

Hot damn.

And that’s where the chapter ends! It feels short, but it was actually 23 fucking pages. It’s just that a good deal of those pages were just Lancia’s giant metal snake ball whirling around over and over and over.

NEXT CHAPTER WILL CONCLUDE THIS EPICALLY GENERIC FIGHT. Will we ever get bingo?? STAY TUNED

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #yay old chapter #I actually have no idea if this is a winning card or not #so your guess is as good as mine #but it FEELS like a winner goddammit #anyways the next chapter is where it really gets going #those reborn heads are about to start piling up

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swfanficbyjz · 6 years

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SW Rey Theory - Legacy of Light - Chapter 24

< - Previous Chapter

Table of Contents - >

(Within the 1st year or two after Return of the Jedi, 10 years later)

“Han! Leia! Chewie!” Starkiller watched as Luke excitedly hugged his sister and the others. In her arms was a baby. The baby. He’d been training Ashla for months, but she remained infuriatingly light. Even though he had managed to move her away from the idea of telling Luke they were related. After that first day, she’d decided that it was better not to tell him, and he’d done his best to keep them apart. In fact, the reason she wasn’t here right now was because he’d sent her on a training mission. He’d known that Leia Organa was bringing her new baby to visit. There was still the chance to turn her, but now that he felt this child, he was certain it was the one that would fulfill Darth Vader’s destiny. Compared to Ashla though, and even to Luke and his sister, it was weak in the force. It was still young; some people took longer to come into their power than others, but admittedly he was disappointed. Vader’s bloodline was being sullied by the weak. His grandchild should have been magnificent.

At least that wasn’t the end of the plan. Sidious’ journals provided a way to siphon someone’s power. He’d already been experimenting with it and was certain he’d mastered it enough to help this child reach its full potential. The advantage to Ashla not knowing how powerful she truly was, meant that he could steal from her pool of power and she’d never notice. In fact, all he had to do now was get something from this child and he could start working on transferring the power to it. It would be a slow process, but they had the time. He had to be careful to not take too much from Ashla or give too much to the child before it was ready.

It was time to get to work. He plastered on the fake overly enthusiastic smile and headed their way. “Welcome!” he reached out his hand for them to shake. “You must be the sister I hear so much about. I’m Galen Snoke.” The child started fussing the moment he got close. Maybe it was stronger than he’d given it credit for.

“Hello,” she replied, bouncing to comfort the baby in her arms. “I’m Leia and this is my husband, Han. And our good friend Chewbacca.” She made a funny face at the child trying to soothe it. “And this is Ben, but he’s a little cranky right now apparently.” She smiled apologetically at him as Luke fussed over his nephew.

“Do you mind if I try something? Back before the war I was a bit of a baby whisperer. I learned all sorts of tricks to calm them down. Babies are very sensitive to the force, even if they don’t end up being a user. He can probably feel the energy here and it’s disconcerting to him,” he offered casually, smiling reassuringly at her. She looked tired. New babies will do that to you.

“Oh, uh, sure. It’s worth a shot.” She carefully handed Ben over to him. He smiled down at the baby, knowing that soon enough this child would be the leader of the new world order. The boy tipped its head back and bawled so he spoke softly to it, bouncing in a hypnotic rhythm. It slowly started relaxing and Starkiller started singing to it in the ancient Sith language. Within seconds, the baby hushed and stared up at him with big brown eyes. Before long, he was asleep, and Leia was looking at it relieved. And frankly, so was Han. “Wow, you really are the baby whisperer. I should have you come over at night to put him to sleep.”

He chuckled softly, “I’d be glad to, but my duties are here.”

“What was that you were singing?” Luke asked.

“It was an old nursery rhyme my mother used to sing to me in her native tongue. Must have worked on me too. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what the language was called, I only remember the one song.” Starkiller smiled at them. “Whatever it says, it seems to be a powerful tranquilizer. I still use it to relax sometimes.” They didn’t need to know that it was an actual spell. Not one that hurts the baby, only puts it to sleep. No, the other ones will come later; when he's ready.

Seemingly relieved Ben had fallen asleep, Leia and Luke fell deep into conversation about the current events. So he led Han and Chewbacca around the complex making small talk, and giving them a tour while still rocking the child in his arms. He could sense a small force presence in Han, but if he knew about it, he didn't care. He most certainly hadn't nurtured it in any way. Perhaps if he had, the baby in his arms would be that much stronger. When they returned to the entrance, the twins were still talking and likely hadn't even noticed their absence. He took the opportunity while they were all distracted to swipe some of the baby's hair. Once he delivered this to the acolytes, they could get to work preparing him. It was handy that all of these spells could work from a distance so long as they had a piece of the people involved. He already had a piece of Ashla, because he’d used it to test the transfer of power on himself. He’d also used it to steal some of her life in order slow the plague eating away at his flesh. That was how Sidious had brought Vader back to life after Anakin had been so badly burned he couldn’t have recovered without magic. It required someone that person was bonded with, and he’d already bonded with Ashla.

Eventually, he would need to take her to the acolytes for the final ritual, but for now, the child would grow up opened to the dark side and the Sith spirits would haunt his dreams. He would beg for relief and Starkiller would be able to provide it. Soon enough, its parents would feel at a loss on how to help the kid and they’d turn it over to Luke. Once here, he’d be able to prepare it for its ascension; and when that time came… he’d take Ashla to Taris and gift Ben Solo with her power.

---

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" He pushed her back against the ship wall and she smiled.

"You tell me all the time," Ashla bit her lip, watching him. "Hopefully that's not the only thing you care about though."

"Of course not. There's so much more I love about you, but the way you look is definitely a bonus." He kissed her neck and she tipped her head back with a soft sigh. Getting involved with her Jedi teacher probably wasn't going to end well, her mom could tell her that, but as her and Snoke had gotten close over the past ten years, it had just moved comfortably into that. He was irresistible in such a dangerous and yet exciting way. Sometimes he just had to look at her and she'd melt. He'd come from a sect of Jedi that apparently never had the same hang ups when it came to attachments; where love had been encouraged rather than dismissed. None of them had ever been tempted by the dark side. From what she'd been learning, the mainstream Jedi couldn't say the same.

Luke had tried to restart the order like it once had been, but he hadn't been willing to give up his attachments either, so it had become a gray area in the new order. When running missions with Galen, she didn't feel the fear everyone warned about; the fear of losing him. Of course, she worried about him, but if anything, she felt stronger running by his side because they were so close. From what she'd seen in the clips Artoo had played for her when she first got there, her parents beat the odds all the time because they'd trusted each other so much.

"We're on a mission though, now isn't the time," she murmured, her protests were mainly for show anyways, she loved the way it felt when he touched her. It was hard to believe she’d gone so long never knowing what this was like.

"We won't get to Taris for several hours, we have time. Might as well have a little fun," his warm breath against her skin sent waves of heat rippling through her body.

So much for trying to stay the voice of reason. She threw her arms around his neck and let him have his way. Giving into the need and desire he always ignited in her. Her thoughts gave way to a fuzzy haze of pleasure as he stoked her flame.

---

They arrived on Taris mid-morning. She thought their mission was to find a small group of force users that might join their new order. She was so gullible, she’d believe anything he told her. He watched her move through the ruins at the ready, admiring how much she’d grown, but he was also disappointed. He moved behind her and when she turned to look at him he waved his hand in front of her and she collapsed into his arms. "Oh Ashla," he shook his head. "If you'd just let go of your stubborn hold on the light, it wouldn't have to be this way. We could have ruled side by side as husband and wife." He kissed her on the lips and then scooped her up, carrying her deeper underground where the acolytes awaited.

He didn't want to admit that he'd become fond of her, but personal feelings aside, it was time for the heir of Darth Vader to rise. He'd tried for ten years to tempt Ashla into the darkness; using every trick he could think of. Though she'd been, and still was naïve, she was firmly rooted in the light. Her mother had taught her balance; even teaching her to use dark side spells didn't corrupt her. Her passion could ignite feelings in him he’d long thought dead, and if she’d just turned for him, he could mix his business with pleasure. At least once they drain her power, she won’t be able to resist him; she just wouldn’t be as interesting.

Ben was so much easier to manipulate. After the nightmares and the connection to the Sith spirits they had created when he was a baby, he would beg for relief. He'd hang on every story Starkiller told him, good or bad. Once he'd gotten his own lightsaber crystal, the power transfer had begun. He would steal some of Ashla's power and bind it to Ben's crystal. Every time Starkiller helped him feel more powerful, he fell more and more into their grasp. Ironically it was Ashla that had provided him with the method of her own downfall. She’d told him about lightsaber crystals being a container and how force users bond with them. That’s what had given him the idea to transfer her power to his crystal instead of to him. It had worked far better than their original plan.

Tonight, Ashla was going to lose the rest of her power in the last ritual. The blood of the chosen one would be spilled, and Ben's fate would be sealed. When he awoke the next day he would feel a burst of power and in the rush he would turn. They would then bring him here to Taris, and he would take his rightful place as one of the Knights of Ren. Once official, they would give him the artifacts of power that belonged to his grandfather and he would begin his ascent as the new Darth Vader. Then his master would be silent no more and the wellspring of the dark side would be unlocked.

He laid her down on the altar in the middle of the ritual room and brushed his finger across her lower lip. "Don't worry, dear," he whispered to her even though she was still unconscious. "I have no reason to kill you. We will only drain your force power." He ran his hand down her body. "At least pretending to be in love with you wasn't the worst thing in the world."

"Welcome home, Starkiller," Tashu said as he entered the room followed by the rest of the acolytes. Their numbers had multiplied since he'd found them ten years before. The new Republic believed the Empire was crushed. Little did they know, the new order; the First Order of the new darkness was rising from its ashes. The Knights of Ren were pulling strings all over the galaxy, everything was playing out exactly as they planned. And now that Ashla was here, the dark side would rise again; and it would be far more powerful than the Sith had ever been.

"I have brought you Darth Vader's daughter, just as I promised. Prepare the ritual. The time of reckoning has come."

Next Chapter - >

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londone-fog · 6 years

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The Light Will Guide You Home- IT Star Wars AU

AO3 Link

I. II. III. IV.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Darkness is on the rise. Darth Assem the Wise has begun gradually over taking the galaxy with his Neibolt Regime. As his power grows, so does the power of his apprentice, the fearsome Darth Fide. With the demolition of the Jedi, the public is quickly losing hope.

Meanwhile, General Marsh and the Rebel Alliance struggle to keep the Regime on a short leash. With the rumor of a hidden Neibolt base on the abandoned Sith planet Korriban, they have made quick plans to follow up on the intel.

All they can do now is hope the force is with them...

Richie sat alone in his room, which was not unusual for him. But he was nervous. Oh, heavens above was he nervous.

He had a meeting with Darth Assem.

He hated meetings with his master. He knew that Assem would be deeply upset to know that the prisoners had escaped and had to be shot down. They hadn’t been able to get any useful information out of them, either.

Richie also fretted that Assem would know about the voice. Eddie. It was the one secret he had, and he hoped it would remain that way. He had no idea who Eddie was or if he was real, but he knew he didn’t want his master anywhere near him. He had felt it when Eddie had shown him light, where he was from. The warm feeling of sun on his face, dirt below his hands. He almost missed it.

Everywhere Richie was became cold. He’d felt cold for so long.

But the cold was where he belonged. It was where he was accepted, sought after. He had a purpose here.

He finally lifted himself up from his bed, donning his signature robe and pulling the hood low over his face. That was one of the most defining features of his persona; completely dark and hidden, except his mouth. His final word was his victim’s final sight.

He couldn’t help but notice how every stormtrooper straightened just a little bit when he walked past, a towering figure of pitch against a sea of white. None of the troops would have been able to sense the terror festering inside of Richie’s mind. The person he was going to see was the only one who could.

Assem’s throne room was a strange sight. There were panes of red glass covering the top of the cylindrical room, making everything awash with a bloody hue. Above his magnificent chair floated supposedly random chunks of metal, machinery, and what appeared to be severed body parts; trophies, every single one. And the Sith himself sat on his throne, yellow eyes practically glowing in delight, his movements toward Richie unnerving and supernatural.

“Ah, my most stupendous apprentice. We’ve had quite the eventful few days, haven’t we?” he said, voice light and full of hidden laughter. It made Richie’s insides coil.

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t do that. You only do that when you think I’m going to be angry. Do you think I’m going to be angry?”

Richie didn’t dare answer aloud; they both knew the answer.

“Well, you are right. I am angry. Do you know why?”

Richie swallowed, forcing his voice to remain steady.

“Because the prisoners escaped.”

“Because the prisoners escaped? Ooh, that’s a good guess, Fide. But no. While yes, I am frankly irked that we lost a source of information, they were shot down. So it’s not like they can take anything back to that slut Marsh. However, there is still someone alive who managed to escape.”

Richie’s head snapped up in surprise, eyebrows furrowing.

“What do you mean, someone escaped?”

“What I mean is that our stormtroopers are shit, and they left a pilot alive enough to escape. There’s footage of an x-wing taking off.”

He allowed this information to wash over him. A pilot was left alive. In an odd moment of association, Richie thought of Stan. His heart clenched at the thought of his old friend, who now lay dead in the Korriban desert. He quickly shook it out before Assem could notice.

“I have reason to believe you aren’t being thorough, Fide. I can sense your weariness even now. Must I remind you what Fide even means?” Assem’s voice was dripping in the sickly sweet venom of some hypnotic snake.

“Loyalty.”

“Yes, loyalty. Loyalty to what, exactly?”

“The Dark Side, and you.”

“That’s right. See, you get it, I know you do. But yet I sense turmoil. You feel remorse for that Uris boy. One of Maturin’s old brats, not unlike you. But you see, you had the sense to rise above, and look at where you are. Not lying dead in the desert. Remember that.”

And with that, Richie was dismissed.

He didn’t dare think about Stan until he was back alone in his room. Stan, who he’d trained alongside for years, and the only one spared when he’d demolished the last remaining Jedi. He had seen the look in his eyes when he and the other pilot were captured. Something akin to fear as well as acceptance, and a sadness deeper than any ocean. But Richie was loyal, even to a fault. Now Stan was dead, leaving Richie with the sting of regret and an infinite tiredness.

It was times like that that he could barely even remember why he’d done what he’d done, joining the dark side when he was birthed from the light. His parents were both long dead; his mother, the senator and his father, the Jedi. Both busy and absent people, even before his father was killed in the first battle that destroyed everything that had been built by the Jedi.

He never truly fit in with the other kids who trained under Maturin, their old master. Except for Stan, everyone wrote him off and left him to be alone. He had no one. Not until he heard Assem for the first time. Assem being in his head was so unlike Eddie; it was more a whisper, a suggestion. And Assem promised many things; never feeling alone, never having to listen to those who didn’t care about him, always having someone to go to.

Of course he went with it. He had to. He had only been a child, no more than 13 years old.

He felt more alone now than he had back then.

As though someone could sense his turmoil, he was suddenly pulled into the audible vacuum he’d come to look forward to.

“Hello.”

“Hi Eddie. Couldn’t stand another day without hearing my beautiful voice?”

“You wish. I dunno, I feel like this whole connecting thing is getting easier.”

“That so?”

Richie could tell Eddie was a little excited. If he was being honest, he was too.

“Yeah. I dunno, I’ve kinda had a lot of weird stuff happen to me the past two days,” Eddie said, a bit of exhaustion dripping from his tone.

“Weird stuff? Sounds fun.”

Eddie laughed a little.

“Less fun than you’d think. It’s more like my life has been cracked open, and all of these things keep pouring out. I’m not living with my mother anymore.”

“Wait, you lived with your mother all this time?”

Richie could practically feel the burn of his embarrassment through the bond.

“Yeah, it was pretty damn miserable. But I’m moving now. It was a kind of last minute decision, but the people I’m going with are pretty cool.”

“Please tell me you’re starting a cantina band. Or wait, better yet, you’re going to become a blue milk farmer.”

“That is disgusting. Do you even know where blue milk comes from.”

“Nope. But I’m guessing you’re going to tell me.”

Eddie huffed a little, and Richie couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Nope, I’m not giving you the satisfaction.”

And just like that, the vacuum was gone. Richie gritted his teeth; he really needed to figure out exactly what the bond was.

He needed to figure out his life in general, because he was becoming less and less certain that he was doing the right thing.

He didn’t think it was the dark pulling him anymore.

#my writing #It (2017)#reddie #stenbrough #benverly #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #Ben Hascom #beverly marsh #bill denbrough #stan uris #mike hanlon #pennywise #the light will guide you home

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rickrakontoys · 7 years

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Star Wars - The Last Jedi

A wierd, different, unexpected, uneven, but ultimately satisfying episode in the franchise.

****SPOILERS**** this is going to be looooong….

The Good - The filmmakers took a lot of chances and risks here and I am happy that they did. They showed us new things that we’ve never seen before, and presented a plot that subverts your expectations to lead the characters to new journeys and arcs. - Luke was terrific as a dejected former jedi master who’s past failure led him to exile. Some fans may have wanted him to remain some kind of power fantasy character who just uses the Force to… blow Star Destroyers up or some shit, but here he plays a believable interpretation of a teacher who failed his students and is suffering from deep regrets. He came to that isolated island “to die” as he says, but his arc here follows the theme of “learning to pick yourself up even in the face of terrible failure". Despite being an old curmudgeon now, he is still recognizably Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill gives his best performance here. And his final “battle” at the end is badass, surprising and clever, not to mention showing us a new use of The Force (which in my mind totally makes some sense). If the dead can project their image through the force, why can’t a living jedi? That Luke acts quite dramatic when facing Kylo Ren as a “hologram” is just funny. Luke’s journey ended in ROTJ. Here he plays one final part in the story of this galaxy. “See you around kid” he says to Kylo. Perhaps he is saying it to us as well. - Leia has a lot of unexpected scenes here… namely, her use of the Force to save herself from what would have been a deadly experience! This felt at first like it came out of nowhere, but Leia has previously shown to possess some strong connection to the Force. Her character is out of commission for a chunk of the movie, but Carrie Fisher does give a very subtle and poignant performance here. How they will reconcile Fisher’s passing for Episode 9 will remain to be seen… - Rey and Kylo’s journeys here compliment each other and are amazing. You honestly don’t know how things will turn out, since they tease both of them being pulled away from their respective sides of the Force often here. Their direct connection to each other through the Force was new, and gave us some very interesting scenes where they talk and interact despite being worlds apart. Kylo gets much more development here, and does some rather unexpected things. He is both sympathetic, and detestable. He is still very much a tortured young man lashing out at the galaxy. Rey mostly plays the role of the student in search of a teacher. She goes looking for Luke, finds him, but he ain’t having it at all, and just lets her hang around for a bit to her disappointment. She eventually takes her own initiative and sort of earns Luke’s respect for it. - We perhaps learn who Rey’s parents are, and it was as I wished: they are nobodies who sold her off as a kid then died in a shallow grave on Jakku. I would have HATED if they were somehow someone we already knew… Rey’s importance isn’t through blood but through her own initiative. She even admits to knowing all along but being afraid to admit it. Daisy Ridley is still fantastic as Rey. I like her even more than before! Kylo can satisfy the Skywalker bloodline requirement of the series in this new trilogy. Let someone else be the hero for a change. - Kylo just straight up murders that silly CGI Supreme Leader Snoke and I love it. Snoke was just Palpatine-lite, and Kylo is clearly the more interesting villain the new series should focus on. Who cares who Snoke was… nobody really cared who Palpatine was in ROTJ… he too was just an evil overlord who gets killed by his apprentice (until Lucas devoted 3 movies to him…). This feels like Rain Johnson cleaning up after JJ Abrams. Snoke was silly and I’m glad he dies unclimactically after only 2 movies. - Poe is a lot more hot-headed here than in the first movie, though we didnt really spend much time with him in TFA. He gets an arc here too though, which also fits in with the themes of the film. His actions get a ton of people killed and essentially cripples the Resistance, but he learns from his mistakes eventually and becomes a better leader for it. - The general theme of the movie being moving past one’s failures is interesting here since it let the filmmakers subvert so many tropes. Most of the plans the Resistence people enact all lead to disaster. In fact, their desperate flight from impending doom through the entire movie felt quite harrowing. Unlike ESB where the rebels successfully escape Hoth to live and fight another day with minimal losses, the Resistance here is absolutely wrecked and continue to be destroyed through the entire runtime. How they will recover from this remains to be seen, and we now know nothing about where this story will go in Episode 9 because of how screwed they are by the end… Meanwhile the First Order suffers from their own failures, but appear too smug about themselves to see their own hubris. They could have easily wiped the Resistance out, but choose to slowly chase them, as if to let the rebels witness the loss of all hope. It doesn’t exactly backfire, but instead renews the rebels fire to fight back. - There is a lot about the Force here that evolves the Star Wars mythos a bit. From the old Jedi texts, to Luke admitting that the Jedi doomed themselves long ago in the prequels, we see Star Wars moving past Jedi and Sith and becoming something different. I’m glad they didnt rely so heavily on what only was shown before with respect to the capabilities of a Force user or the nature of the Force in general. People may not like this, but the change is welcome. Also… YODA!!!! Slightly crazed puppet Yoda!!! He’s still teaching Luke new things. Wished ghost Obi-wan also appeared somehow… but that may be going too far. - The battles and duels in this movie were spectacular. The lightsaber fight in Snoke’s throne room? One of the best fights in the series… it was exciting and realistically choreographed, flashy without being excessive (like the prequels). A good balance between the fights in the OT and prequels. Seeing Rey and Kylo battling Snoke’s guards in a long take, shot clearly with the static angle… magnificent. Plus we get to see Kylo at full strength as opposed to crippled in TFA. He takes on multiple enemies at once, while Rey struggles with one guard. - The cinematography here is in general quite lovely. Rian Johnson loves his wide shots, and fills them with a beauty not often seen in these movies. There are some gorgeous shots here… from Holdo’s weaponized Hyperspace maneuver, to Luke’s standoff against the AT-ATs, and his final scene looking to the twin sunset that recalls the similar shot on Tatooine long ago… the use of color throughout makes for a very pretty movie. - We get flashback scenes here oddly enough… which we never got in other episode films. Plus, Rian wasnt afraid to venture into other types of shots and scenes, like a minor use of slow motion. They let the filmmmakers inject their own style into the movie. - The porgs were thankfully not too obtrusive. They are just sorta there to annoy Chewie. Chewie roasting some for dinner while they watch horrified was great and rather morbid. - Seeing Luke on the Falcon again, and his scene with R2… very poignant, and melancholy. They somehow manage to use Leia’s old message to Obi Wan to further Luke’s character development. - The battle on the salt planet Crait was neat. They make you think there will be some Hoth style battle against the AT-ATs, but its ultimately subverted by having the Resistance not even have a remote chance at all of doing any damage due to their lack of useful weapons. Finn tries the heroic sacrifice but… eh… Rose saves him and ends up letting the First Order blast a hole in the base. The hopelessness is really driven far here. - It took until the ending for me to realize Poe never was introduced to Rey ever. Also, did Rey steal the Jedi texts from that tree Luke planned on torching? You see some books in a drawer that Finn takes a blanket out of on the Falcon. Perhaps Rey will use them to help revive the Jedi order? - The last scene of the movie was an odd one to close out on… some orphans talking about Luke Skywalker like some legendary hero… then one of them uses the force to grab a broom? The Force is alive in others! Hope always survives! A bit on the nose but it makes you contemplate the future beyond the current heroes. The Bad…. - Finn and Rose’s entire subplot was superfulous and kind of terrible… I could see how it ties into the theme of the movie (hatching a clever plan to fight the First Order that ultimately fails spectacularly, but they keep fighting anyways), but that didnt stop it from being rather dull. Canto Blight felt out of place… like you were watching Harry Potter or the Hunger Games. And the whole animal horse chase thing fell kinda flat… - Benicio del Toro is in this… he plays some wierdo hacker (slicer?) with a stutter. He ultimately amounts to very little. He’s played convincingly, but only added to the superfulousness of Finn and Rose’s subplot… - In fact… that whole subplot was what damaged this movie severely. It is clearly the weakest part of an otherwise interesting film. How they come up with the plan to infiltrate the First Order ship to disable their hyperspace tracking device thing felt halfbaked. Finn and Rose spout some technobabble that feels straight out of Star Trek, then decide to gungho this odd mission. They threw Maz Kanata in there for a moment for no reason… why would Finn and Poe ask her for help? Finn barely met her. Does Poe even know her at all? All of this coulda been avoided if Vice Admiral Holdo just told Poe about her and Leia’s secret plan at the start! - Rose is gonna be divisive…. she feels like a fan stand-in character. She fangirls over Finn, goes on an adventure with him, and is suddenly in love with him? Sure I guess… i suppose i could buy that, considering she was previously some unseen common worker for the Resistance meeting a “celebrity”. Finn didnt seem to react much to her kiss though. His heart seems out for Rey. - Rey just casually dropping herself off at Snoke’s ship felt a wee bit too convenient… then after the battle in the throne room she just… appears back on the Falcon. Jarring, despite the attempt to explain it. - Phasma is used so little i wonder why they bothered making her a unique character at all… to sell toys? She gets a badass fight where she dominates Finn, but then seemingly dies in a fiery pit. Maybe they will make it a running gag that she keeps coming back? I hope she survived and returns later anyways. We get to see Gwendolyn Christie’s… eye. Yay? - The music here plays off established themes from the OT and TFA, which is fine, but otherwise there really isnt anything new here. Rose gets a new leitmotif at least. They use Palpatine’s theme during some Snoke scenes too, but is it meant to suggest they are related? - Honestly, the middle of the film just drags too long, and its all due to the Finn and Rose scenes. I get they needed to have Finn do something, but was that Canto Blight stuff necessary? That they just fly off somewhere then return to the fleet chase later kinda trivialized the whole scenario. They also introduce an idea that weapons manufacturers are profitting off the perpetual war between empire and rebellion. Neat, but they don’t really explore it further… feels like that belongs in a different movie… - The beginning of the movie focused a lot on Rose’s sister despite us not knowing much about her. Just kinda an odd choice? Those rebel bombers that just drop bombs on top of the dreadnught are also kinda dumb… most of the rebel fighter craft are decimated right off the bat. Summary: It may take more viewings to see where this truly stands qualitywise in the series. The Force Awakens definitely flowed better and had better pacing, but this one was more inventive and introduced us to newer concepts and was less predictable. Apart from the weak Canto Blight subplot and some other plot goofery, the film works. For now, I think it can give it an 8.5/10.0. I respect the hell out of them for doing some ballsy things that they know will rile part of the fanbase. Franchise rankings (out of 10): ESB & ANH 9.0 (fresh and with a truly lasting legacy) TLJ 8.5 (for evolving the franchise) RotJ 8.25 (a good close to the OT but imperfect) TFA 8.0 (overly familiar beats but still fun) ROTS 7.0 (flawed but sort of gives more weight to what happens in ROTJ) Rogue One 6.5 (very flawed, kind of a mess) TPM & AOTC 5.0 (some parts of it i like, the rest is nonsensical or dull) People seem to forget how different ESB was from ANH. This is the case here compared to TFA. I think its neat how each trilogy has its own unique feel and energy. I only hope JJ Abrams grows beyond his shortcomings in Ep. 9 and gives us something also unique and fresh.

#the last jedi #star wars #star wars spoilers #the last jedi spoilers #star wars the last jedi #movie review #spoilers #swtlj #star wars tlj #star wars ep 8 #star wars ep viii

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fortucato · 7 years

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of sith and starlight || au

Xan watched Cato with thinly veiled curiosity as he worked, noting the fierce look on his face that surely would have struck fear in the hearts of even those braver than himself. Xan had been in the Sith’s clutches long enough to have physical scars to show for it, but he knew Cato bore scars on his skin and his mind - they had held onto him for so long that the effects of their turning him were even evident on his face.

For Xan, the memories he shared with Cato were those that he cherished but he realised that they must have been soured by what was done to him - what was never to be, the calm before the storm. “Of course, I’m sorry Cato. I should have realised.” He said, eyes downcast as he realised just how much things had changed.

Even though both warring factions would never forgive Cato and even though he himself could not either, Xan wondered if one day he might forgive him for the things he had done before realising that he already had. If there had ever even been a shred of blame within the young Jedi, it had quickly dissipated on the realisation that the Sith who had changed him were responsible for the atrocities committed, as well as, though he hated to admit it, the Jedi council who had left him for dead.

He tossed the requested bun to Cato, noting smugly the distraction he had caused before chasing away the thought of Catos tongue doing away with the stray drop instead of his own. Such a thought was unwelcome for a Jedi, though Xan itched to defy the rule that he must stay unattached and unfeeling to do his job.

“Thank you.” He beamed, swiping honey from his lips as he devoured the last bite. “I think some of the elders find it hard to believe that the scrawny kid who couldn’t feel the force became as good as I’ve gotten, but hey, I had a great first teacher, so I’m not too shocked.” Xan smiled, running a hand absently through his hair. In reality, he had trained so hard and put in so many hours trying to prove them all wrong so that one day he might get the chance to rescue Cato the way no one else would and perhaps get the chance to make him proud. “I am grateful for you believing in me like you did. I am this because of you.”

Pushing himself off the wall he had been sitting on, Xan followed Cato. He was right, they were running on borrowed time until someone recognised them - or more likely, Cato’s dark aura - and their cover was blown. “Did you get everything you needed?” His shorter stature meant that he had to jog to catch up with Cato’s head start and he pulled the hood of his cloak back up for the journey back to the house. It occurred to Xan that it was crazy to be facilitating Cato getting in contact with his own kind and bringing them here, but he owed him at least a chance to try - they were Xans enemies but they had fought for his freedom as much as Cato had. He could not deny him communication with his allies now that he had so few.

The light emanating from Xan toyed with the dark mists which clung to him. The darkness that clouded him-- that pitted Sith against Jedi-- urged lightening from Cato’s fingertips. When he was younger he had trained to slay the Imperial’s tainted outlooks, but he had served the Empire with brutal insurgence. And now he was caught between the lives. His head committed treason against itself. It pounded and thrummed-- bled black and black and black. It seeped from aqua of his irises and onto the ivory skin beneath. It was the purest evil, believing it was feeding him its own faulty light.

And when the whispers came, his skull shook. The pain was of magnificent caliber. It was a saber-- burning through his flesh, bone, and brain. Giving in could fix him. The side of the Sith had become peace for Cato. Its deathly meditations provided soothing through rage, and he had not delved into darker arts since the Council had reclaimed him. Xan would not approve of the act, but Cato was in no mood to retrain himself in the Jedi’s way.

His nose crinkled, eyes squinted. Fingers pressed against his forehead, and the pad of his index pressed deep into his temple. The light knew its enemy, and the Sith Assassin had crept too far inland. How tempting it was to use his future invention to call the Empire’s fleet, and not just the Sith who had followed him from the Order. They would take him back. They needed him, but there would be a grand price to pay, and Cato was uncertain his weakened state could survive angered trials. His power thrived on temper, and here he was, faced by the smile of a Jedi Knight.

The pain gave his tone an underlying edge. He was attempting to shield it, but a Sith’s withdrawal was futile, easy to locate as they were prone to violence. “I can’t remember much of that time,” he admitted, “my memories were...” Redesigned? Twisted into lies? Made thoughts? “Altered.” Though he settled with the word, Cato’s face was drawn tight and his shoulders stiffened. “At least someone believed in you.” And because the past was now a mirage, the Sith was surprised it had been him.

They had always questioned his allegiance. Those memories, the Sith had left to fester and force their point. The Council had constantly deliberated their views, and the visions in which they had seen him destroy the innocent. He recalled being a fearful youngling, and then an apprentice who feared his own reflection. “They kept the bad,” Cato told him, “the promise of what I was to become.” Perhaps if the Council had spent time convincing him of his good, he would have been less inclined to face evil with an embrace. “What I became.”

He had been so young. He had been a scared kid. Cato’s fists clenched, and the anger caused his heart to swell. The hate was coursing through his veins. He felt it, palpable, could taste it upon his tongue. And like a bomb, it was made to erupt. The earth cracked beneath them. It began to slice through the ground, through the market, and the surrounding force caused a steady uprising of screams. Who knew the power of a Sith, that could split open the world with an earthquake?

At the rate they were going, an Imperial spy could pinpoint him planets away. He was the weapon they wanted. And he gave in to the creation he was. Naboo did not deserve the traitorous Prince's onslaught.

#of sith and starlight

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thehungrykat1 · 6 years

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It’s a LEGO World at Legoland Malaysia Resort

During our stay at Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour last year (Read: Seaside Vacation at Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour in Johor, Malaysia), one of places we just had to go to was Legoland Malaysia Resort. The theme park was actually just a 10-minute ride away from our hotel, which happened to offer complimentary shuttle bus services to Legoland. There are nine Legoland theme parks around the world and this is the first time for my sister and I to visit this awesome toy wonderland.

Legoland Malaysia Resort lets imagination become reality with over 70 hands-on rides, slides, shows and attractions for families and children of all ages. The park is open daily from 10:00am to 6:00pm so we went here early on our second day in Malaysia. It is highly advisable not to schedule your trips on weekends which is when tourists from Singapore make a road trip to Johor Bahru. We went here on a Monday so the park was not so full and we had the rides all to ourselves.

The first Legoland park was opened in Denmark in 1968 for Lego lovers everywhere. It has expanded all the way to the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Asia. In 2012, Legoland Malaysia opened as the first Legoland in Asia, taking visitors on a “brick-tastic” journey of Lego adventures. Entrance to the Legoland theme park is RM199 per person but you can get a 20% discount if you purchase it online 7 days in advance. If you want to enter the Legoland Water Park, which has a separate entrance fee, then the two-park combo ticket costs RM249.

Since we didn’t bring our swimwear for this trip, we chose to just get tickets for the main theme park. Legoland Malaysia is quite huge, especially when compared to Sanrio Hello Kitty Town, the other tourist spot in Johor Bahru. The Legoland Malaysia Observation Tower should be the first activity you should do to get a bird’s eye view of the entire resort.

There are several zones around the park where you can visit several countries in just a few steps. The Lego replica of the Taj Mahal in India is quite impressive. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is widely known as the jewel of Muslim art.

The architecture of Karaweik Hall in Myanmar is inspired by the mythical creature, Karaweik and ancient royal barges. I didn’t know you can create such magnificent structures just using Lego bricks.

Singapore has its own display with the Singapore Flyer as its landmark. You can even see the Duck Tours bus rolling along the street.

The Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China are two other formidable structures at the China displays of Legoland Malaysia. There are many other cities and countries to see, all made of colorful Lego bricks.

Kids and children will have a fun time at Legoland Malaysia, especially with several areas devoted for the young ones. The Nissan Driving School is an activity where they can learn about road safety and other essential tips such as signalling, traffic lights and parking. After a road safety video presentation, kids can take the wheel for a memorable driving experience in special Lego cars. Junior drivers can race around an easy-to-drive track for endless driving fun.

Toddlers and younger children will have fun at the Baby Care station which is an air-conditioned room that has play areas for children and a seating area for parents and guardians. They can even take naps here while adults rest and recharge.

Aside from the Lego displays, there are also numerous rides and attractions around the resort. The Legoland Express is a train that takes you on a journey through the main attractions in the Park. You can sit back and enjoy the breeze in your own Lego cart.

We’re not really the thrill-seeking adventurous types when it comes to rides, so we are quite happy with the family rides like The Technic Twister. This one is similar to a carnival ride where you can spin your car as fast as you want.

At the Rescue Academy, speed and skills will be put to a test as firefighter families and kids race to power a Lego fire engine and save a burning building using hand-powered water hoses. Visitors can also fly away and ride on a Lego airplane.

We decided to test our skills at the Boating School where guests can take control of the battery-powered Lego-themed boats through the waters.

One of the most popular areas at Legoland Malaysia would definitely be the Lego Star Wars Miniland. This new indoor experience showcases over 2,000 well-known Lego Star Wars models and iconic scenes from all six episodes and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. From a galaxy far, far away, all your favourite characters are now here such as Yoda, R2-D2, Darth Vader and the legendary Sith Lords, all made from Lego bricks.

The attraction features Lego models built to a 1:20 scale using 1.5 million Lego bricks! The display also features authentic Star Wars sounds, actions and lighting effects to create a realistic and enjoyable experience for the whole family.

Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon is also here and it even flies up into the air for a few seconds. I also spotted some cute ewoks hiding inside the forest.

Of course, Legoland also has one of the largest selection of Lego toy sets in Asia. We went to The Big Shop to buy some Lego souvenirs and merchandise for gifts and “pasalubong.”

After a busy day, there are several dining outlets where guests can replenish their energy. The King’s Grill looks like it has meals fit for king, or a queen.

My sister Angel has the same appetite as me, so we ordered some sandwiches and grilled items for our late lunch. She had a Grilled Chicken Sandwich with fries while I had the Barbecue Chicken with rice. Just remember that Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country so don’t expect to find pork dishes on the menu.

There are so many other activities to do at Legoland Malaysia, but we had to leave early because we wanted to visit the Premium Outlet Stores in Johor Bahru as well. It was a fun afternoon filled with Lego and Star Wars toys and this is a must-visit whenever you are in Johor Bahru. Our stay in Malaysia is coming to an end, but we have another theme park to visit in the coming days. Our next destination is to head back to their next-door neighbor and explore Universal Studios Singapore.

Legoland Malaysia Resort

7 Jalan Legoland, Medini, 79250 Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia

+607 597 8888

www.legoland.com.my

www.facebook.com/LEGOLAND.my

#LegolandMalaysia #Legoland #Malaysia #Lego #Themepark #Fun #Adventure #Toys #JohorBahru #Travel #Vacation

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