Chapter Text
Through the halls of an Old Republic Military Base, a lone figure in dark armor marched with a terrible purpose, his shadow casting itself over some of the last ruined remnants of the once great Republic. He was an Inquisitor, his real name lost to a distant past he no longer remembered. For all intents and purposes he was a part of the Empire, a tool of the Emperor, and nothing more.
Beside him was a squad of the Empire’s best and brightest, the elite Stormtroopers. While the armor of the Stormtrooper Corps was normally shiny and white, uniform and faceless, he’d made sure to drag his squad through enough battles and struggles to temper them. Now the armor was burnt and singed, grayed and covered in scars… just like those who wore it.
The Republic Base he found himself in was beyond ancient, overgrown and infested with wildlife. Clearly, nobody had visited the location for several millennia. The power was long since gone, and the subterranean structure would’ve been pitch dark were it not for the lights mounted on the blasters and helmets of his Stormtroopers. Every once in a while, they would illuminate the forms of fallen soldiers, each bearing on their armor the insignia that presumably belonged to the same Old Republic that had once operated this base.
The fact that there were any remains that were left to be seen after spending so long laying still was just one of the many oddities about their current situation. Despite the Empire having almost every record from the Republic and Jedi Order, no files existed on this particular installation. Indeed, even the planet upon which the base was built wasn’t logged in Imperial databases. The only reason the Inquisitor had even known about the world at all was through his powers of the Dark Side… he had sensed something here that had immediately demanded his attention.
A Jedi.
Interestingly, the Jedi didn’t even seem to be masking themselves with the Force, being as bright and visible as a star. It was a refreshing change of pace from the cowardly hiding that the rest of their ilk had resorted to, but it would not change their fate.
Every dozen paces that they walked, one of the Stormtroopers would summarily execute a wandering Mynock or Dataspider. Blaster rifles might’ve been a bit extreme for what were common pests, but the black-clad figure encouraged them to continue. If anything, the sound of blaster fire would hopefully inspire fear in their target.
Although… I don’t sense any fear, the Inquisitor thought, pausing in place and raising a fist. His Stormtroopers all took a knee and readied their weapons as he once more reached out with the Dark Side, bending it to his will. The Jedi’s presence was still very apparent, but there wasn’t a hint of fear to be felt.
“We’re close. Set your blasters to stun,” the Inquisitor commanded, his voice garbled by the audio equipment in his helmet. Although he was far from against the idea of killing the Jedi, he knew that if he could bring a captive Jedi back to Lord Vader, the Sith Lord would be pleased.
“Yes Sir!” the squad leader replied as he and his fellow troopers adjusted their weapons with silent, military precision.
The Inquisitor’s dual-bladed lightsaber rested heavily in his hand as he surveyed the darkened corridors through his helmet’s thin red visor. There was nothing in the way of movement, and an unnatural quiet permeated the air. More than once, his finger brushed over the blade’s ignition switch, but he maintained his patience in spite of the growing anger he felt. Better to let the Jedi make the first move and show their hand, giving him the perfect opportunity to take them down.
“Sir,” the squad leader spoke up once more. “I’ve got a ping on the Motion Tracker, twenty meters forward.”
“Could be another Mynock,” another trooper reminded him, a lilt of snark and humor in his voice.
“Don’t get complacent,” the Inquisitor sternly reminded them, striding forward toward what was likely the source of the motion. Just ahead of them was a four-way junction in the corridors that led deeper into the base, and it was all but a certainty that their target was hiding just around the corner.
After only a few steps, he heard a sound from just ahead, around the left corner. The Inquisitor grinned as the presence of the Jedi shrink away from the Force. Now you choose to hide, he thought, a predatory smirk growing beneath his helm.
“You will find no sanctuary in this old tomb, Jedi,” he called out, his voice modulator keeping the declaration cold and detached. “But if you surrender yourself, the Emperor may yet show mercy to you, just as he did to me.” His hand clenched tightly around the hilt of his saber, the memories of the Emperor’s mercy seared into his mind as if with a hot iron.
No reply came, as the Inquisitor expected. More noises were audible, a shuffle of footsteps, and a mechanical clicking noise from… a blaster? That was certainly unusual, but so was a Jedi that didn’t bother to hide themselves.
“So be it, Jedi,” the Inquisitor growled, igniting a single red blade that bathed the hallway with an eerie glow. He detected a strong sense of fear clouding the Force as soon as his lightsaber came to life, so perhaps a more direct approach had been the correct call after all. While he’d intended to let the Jedi make the first strike, he wasn’t about to let himself be shot, and he wasn’t above making a change to his plans.
Slowly and steadily, he crept forward, his Stormtroopers mirroring his movement with practiced ease. Finally, a figure exploded out of cover, and a pair of crimson blaster bolts flew through the air. The first ricocheted off of the Inquisitor's blade, and although he didn’t see what happened to the second, it was easy to sense the squad leader of his Stormtroopers departing from the Living Force. An unfortunate loss, but an acceptable one.
Before the figure could fire another shot, the Inquisitor reached out a hand and, with the might of the Dark Side, pulled the weapon from the hand of its wielder. A slash of his lightsaber ensured that the blaster rifle was in pieces by the time that it hit the ground, leaving his target defenseless. The figure lunged forwards as though to try and close the distance, but the Inquisitor’s fist tightened as he simply grabbed the hapless fool and lifted them into the air.
As they choked and clutched their throat, one of the Stormtroopers managed to shine a light on the figure, revealing a human man clad in a simple khaki uniform. He bore the proud and prominent insignia of the old Republic on his shoulders, and had curly blonde hair and what were probably blue eyes, although it was a bit hard to tell with all of the light being cast over his face.
The Inquisitor frowned as a realization struck him; while this was certainly an enemy of the Empire, he was not a Jedi.
“How unexpected. I should have known, it’s much harder to inspire such fear in a Jedi,” he taunted the choking man. “But perhaps you may still be of use to us.”
With a single deft motion, he released the man from his choking grasp, leaving him falling to the floor in a heap. As he coughed and hacked, the Inquisitor held his blade to the man’s throat. “Tell me then, you hapless fool, where is the Jedi?”
The man heaved as he looked up at the Inquisitor, first with a look of relatable anger, before his expression shifted to… relief?
“Closer than you think.”
The words hadn’t even processed before he heard the ignition of another lightsaber, and a terrified scream from one of his Stormtroopers. In a move that would’ve had him killed by Lord Vader for his incompetence, his training failed him as he turned around… only for the man to leap up and tackle him from behind. For a brief moment they struggled against one another, all the while the Jedi effortlessly cut down his Stormtroopers with remarkable ruthlessness.
Finally, the man’s grip slipped just enough for the Inquisitor to free a hand and launch him away with a strong Force Push. The sound of a loud metal clanging confirmed that he’d been thrown all the way into one of the corridor walls, but the Inquisitor had no time to examine what state he was in, as he was just barely able to bring up his lightsaber in time to block an overhead swing from the Jedi.
The Inquisitor stared the Jedi down with a burning hatred as he forced their blade back and assumed a defensive stance. The Jedi was a human woman with short red hair, green eyes, and glasses. But the true thing that stood out to him even more than the green lightsaber in her hands was her armor, an unusual type that he’d never seen before. He also noticed the smoldering remains of his Stormtroopers lying in heaps behind her. Evidently this was a battle that he would have to win himself.
“There you are, that’ll make this much easier,” the Inquisitor taunted her. “You Jedi are getting quite hard to find these days, this’ll be all the sweeter.”
The Jedi narrowed her eyes in response, but wasted no time with talk as she struck again, and again, but each time he deflected or outright blocked her strikes. Her form was unusually aggressive for a Jedi, with a great deal of power behind every strike that she brought to bear. He found himself being overwhelmed, and looking for a means to gain an advantage, he ignited his second blade.
The move succeeded in catching her momentarily off-guard, and exploiting the vulnerability, he knocked her off balance with a Force Push and aggressively struck back. His hope was that her defensive skills wouldn’t be as strong as her offensive form, and that if he could end the fight quickly, perhaps he could claim victory. Unfortunately, she managed to keep up with his strikes, and he found it impossible to find a gap in her defenses.
The frustration and hatred within him slowly built with every passing second, and in a gamble, he latched onto it. The Dark Side thrived on such emotions, and through it he could become stronger. Each blow he delivered began to land more heavily, but rather than faltering, the Jedi shifted her posture and began deflecting his blades away from her, using his own momentum against him. The vines and plants that had overgrown the base were sliced to ribbons with each blow she deflected, and he grumbled in frustration at how she remained laser-focused throughout it all.
But just as the Dark Side offered him strength, so too did it sap his focus. Rage was blinding, it obfuscated his thinking, and eventually offered the Jedi the opportunity that she needed. Exploiting a momentary gap in his guard, she drove her boot into his stomach. As he stumbled back, his lightsaber fell out of place, and the last thing he saw was the bright emerald-green light rapidly approaching his neck.
As the Sith Warrior fell to the ground in a lifeless heap, Lucy rushed to Kyle’s side and inspected him for any injuries. He was dazed after having been thrown into the wall, but seemed to have escaped any major injuries. Now with the chaos over, he was hyperventilating and clearly confused after his close brush with death. “Breathe,” she instructed gently, “you’re safe now.”
Kyle nodded in response, and Lucy held onto his hand tightly as his breathing slowly returned to normal. In truth, she was barely able to keep the incredible fear that she felt contained. She had been perhaps only a few seconds from losing him for good, and had it not been for the surprising lack of awareness on the part of the Sith Warrior, she may well have been too late to save him.
That fear of loss was exactly the kind of reason why Jedi were forbidden from forming emotional attachments, but it was also what she’d been well-trained to resist. Even as the Dark Side called to her, she paid it no mind, and focused instead on the present. She had won, and he was safe.
“Thanks,” Kyle finally said, steadily returning to his feet with her help. “When’d you wake up?”
“About an hour ago,” Lucy answered, frowning as she registered just how badly the base had deteriorated while they’d been in stasis. Whilst she’d been awake for a while, she wasn’t any closer to finding out what had gone wrong. They were only meant to be in stasis for around three days, helping to test a new technology that could be used to keep wounded soldiers alive until they could get medical attention, but it had clearly been a great deal longer than just one week. “I thought I was alone at first, but when I sensed you waking up, I ran over as quickly as I could.”
Kyle rapidly blinked and breathed deeply, no doubt still recovering before he managed to lock eyes with her once more. “You made it just in time… I don’t suppose you saw any of the others?”
Lucy sadly shook her head, reaching out with the Force one more time to confirm her suspicions. “I ran past a few dead Troopers on the way here, I didn’t have time to check but… I think we’re the only ones who made it.”
“...Shit,” Kyle muttered, before giving her one last hopeful look. “Any idea what happened?”
Once more, Lucy had to shake her head. “No idea, but something must’ve gone terribly wrong. Judging by the look of this place… we’ve been out for a long time.”
Kyle’s gaze fell to the ground. More specifically, to the dead Sith Warrior. “Think that he had anything to do with it?”
“Not with what I overheard from him,” Lucy answered. Experimentally, she reached down for the man’s long double-bladed lightsaber, the hefty cylinder being noticeably warm to the touch. “No doubt about whether or not that’s a Sith Warrior. The armor’s… strange though, I’ve never seen that insignia before. I don’t think he’s alone either, there’s this… terrible darkness over the whole galaxy. I can’t sense any other Jedi.”
As she spoke, Kyle reached down and took the blaster of one of the Imperial Soldiers. Far from wearing the armor of a normal Sith Trooper, the predominantly white armor of these soldiers was far more simplistic, but also looked a bit sturdier. Judging by the way that Kyle held the blaster, it wasn’t a model that he was familiar with, but he quickly set to work taking everything he was likely going to need from the bodies, including the Sith’s helmet.
Judging by his awkward, stiff movements and the way he kept his eyes glued to his task, it was clear that something was weighing heavily on Kyle’s mind. Several more moments passed in silence before he finally asked,“Lucy… do you think we lost?”
Closing her eyes, she reached out into the Force once more. Concentrating, focusing, allowing herself to reach out further into the Galaxy… and found it to be even more smothered in the dark than she’d found earlier. It was as though a suffocating weight was holding the light back, and she still couldn’t sense even a single Jedi. Recognizing the danger that she was in just by what she was doing, she reluctantly concealed herself as best as she could. If any other Sith Warriors were out hunting for people like her, she had little choice but to hide, at least for now.
“I… I think so,” she finally answered. It probably shouldn’t have surprised her just how hard it was to say, but it still felt like she wasn’t so much speaking her words as much as she was coughing them up. Everything that she’d known, the Republic, the Jedi Order, even her old family… all of it gone, in what had seemed like just a moment. But she couldn’t mourn for it all; not yet anyway. “What do we do now?”
Kyle stood up and affixed the belt of one of the fallen Imperial Soldiers to his waist. When he turned to face her, there was a reassuringly determined look in his eyes. “We can’t stay here, there might be more on the way. But these guys had to get here somehow. We’ll find their ship, and fly it to deep space where we can try to figure out what we’ve missed.”
Lucy nodded. While a bit optimistic, it was probably the best chance they had. “And you’re confident you’ll be able to fly whatever they brought?”
“I sure hope so,” he replied. “Got anything you need to grab before we go?”
Lucy briefly thought it over and, recognizing that nobody was around to judge her, smiled softly. “Yeah, I just need one thing.”
With a single confident motion, she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. At first he was very clearly caught off-guard, but he swiftly reciprocated the gesture and, after a few precious and blissful seconds, she reluctantly broke off the contact and beamed at him.
Kyle blinked as though in mild disbelief, before he shook his head and regained his focus. “...You know, I think I needed that too.”
“I thought so,” she replied. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
The Force continued to guide Lucy, just as it always had, and before long they found themselves at the open doors to one of the landing bays. Along the way, they happened across the bodies of several Republic Soldiers, all of which had been killed by some unknown force. It was disturbing, but Kyle opted to retrieve their ID Tags, even if there was likely nobody left to return them too.
Looking inside the landing bay, they spotted what was without question the Sith Warrior’s vessel. Rough and angular, it was coated black, and carried no visible markings of any kind. It was also decently-sized, but it was still a far cry from the very sizable Fury-class Imperial Interceptors that they were familiar with. Standing guard at the ramp of the vessel were a pair of the same Imperial Troopers that they’d encountered earlier.
All of the other ships that were docked in the bay were all very obviously non-functional. If they wanted to leave, they’d have to steal the Imperial Vessel.
Kyle kept his eyes and blaster on the soldiers as he whispered to her. “How do you wanna play this?”
“I’ll distract them, you blast ‘em,” Lucy answered, to which he nodded.
Reaching out with the Force, Lucy reached up to one of the large spare engines hanging from the roof, and with a bit of manipulation, decoupled it from the large brace that was holding it up. The starship engine came crashing down and hit the deck of the hangar with a terrific clanging sound, and the two Imperial Troopers turned around to see what had caused the noise. Four blaster shots rang out in rapid succession as Kyle killed both of them, missing twice along the way.
“Huh, I expected more recoil,” Kyle commented, before gesturing towards the starship. “Come on, there’s probably more aboard.”
Sure enough, even as they crossed the hangar, the ship’s engines roared to life and the ramp began to close. The pilot was too slow however, and they were both able to barely make it aboard. The ramp led directly into a cramped troop bay, with a number of bulkheads leading to other parts of the ship. The interior of the ship was dispassionately utilitarian, and almost as darkly-colored as the exterior.
Briefly, Lucy and Kyle looked to one another, each wondering which room to search first, before one of the doors opened and a blonde man in a gray uniform stepped through. Kyle raised his blaster to kill him, only to hold his fire as the man kept his hands up above his head.
“Woah, woah!” he loudly cried. “I’m just the pilot, don’t shoot!”
Lucy hesitated, for as much as she distrusted anyone who served the Sith, she also didn’t want to kill a surrendering foe. “Stun him.”
Kyle briefly looked down at the blaster in his hands with a hint of doubt. “I’m uh, not quite sure how.”
The pilot was very quick to speak up, keeping his hands raised. “You use the lever, on the left side, by the grip! It needs to be pushed forward!”
Kyle looked at his weapon for a moment, briefly glanced to his side to ensure that Lucy was able to step in if the Pilot made a move, and showed the blaster’s side to the man. “Like this?”
“Yes, like that,” the pilot answered with a noticeable resignation.
“Thanks,” Kyle said, before aiming the weapon once more and pulling the trigger.
A blue cone of energy enveloped the Imperial, who promptly fell to the deck in an unconscious heap. The duo swiftly pushed forward, but after checking the cockpit, and then the rest of the ship, realized that there was nobody else aboard.
The cockpit itself turned out to be probably the most spacious part of the ship, having four primary seats and a large viewport for the crew to look through, along with a camera system to cover the ship’s blindspots. The controls themselves didn’t look all that different from the ships that Lucy had flown in the past. At least, not at a glance.
“I’ll get this guy tied up,” she said, feeling a bit of relief to find that apparently their new prisoner had already taken the liberty of disarming himself. “Think you can fly it?”
Kyle took the helm and examined the controls. “Fly? Yes, I think so. Fighting’s gonna be a different story. Let’s just hope the Sith think we’re on their side.”
“The Force willing, they will,” Lucy said.
With the prisoner now bound and tied to one of the seats in the cockpit, Lucy took a seat next to Kyle and gave him a reassuring smile, which he returned. Experimentally, he applied a bit of power to the lateral thrusters, and they were both relieved to see the ship spin around as expected, its nose now facing the hangar bay. With the ship now angled, he quickly accelerated, and the Sith Transport shot upwards into the sky.
“Everything looks good… although if I’m reading the sensors right, we might be alone out here,” Kyle said. “I’ll note our coordinates just in case we want to come back, but I still say we find somewhere to hide for a bit. Then we can try to find a way to link back up with the Republic… if it’s still around.”
Lucy couldn’t help but feel a cold chill run down her spine. Even at the height of the war with the Sith, she had never felt a darkness like the one that had seemingly swallowed the Galaxy. For as much as she tried to look on the brighter side of life, she knew the odds that the Republic was still in the fight were slim to none. “Even if it isn’t, the Sith have to have enemies, right?”
“Damn right,” he answered, although the lack of confidence in his tone was telling. He spent a few moments familiarizing himself with the controls of this new ship, pleased to see that surprisingly little had changed. Finally he glanced over at Lucy and gently asked, “How are you holding up?”
The cold chill that Lucy had felt failed to leave her as she answered. “...I’m just worried about everything we missed, everyone that we left behind… this just doesn’t feel real. I don’t want it to be.”
Kyle was silent for a moment, sparing a glance down at the control console before turning to look her in the eye. Given that they were flying up and out of the atmosphere, it was probably safe for him to deviate his attention a little. “I get it, and if I’m being honest, I’m scared. But it’s gotta get better from here, right? We’ve still got each other.”
Lucy’s mind momentarily flashed back to just how close Kyle had come to death, and she couldn’t help but grimace. “We almost didn’t.”
“Almost,” he emphasized, reaching out one of his hands to grip hers tightly. “Thanks again, but I’m okay. I’ve got you looking out for me, and you know I ain’t going anywhere.”
The familiar comfort of Kyle’s hand in hers, along with his words of reassurance, were enough to ease at least some of the tension forming in her shoulders. “Thank you Kyle.”
“Anytime,” Kyle replied with a small smile. “And relax a little, we’re safe.”
Lucy nodded, and let him return his focus to flying. Even if she’d known it was there, she was still grateful that he’d neglected to not voice the “for now” at the end of his statement.
Author’s Notes: I’m not gonna pretend like I didn’t just want to write a Star Wars adventure and play around with the universe. Plus, I had this perfectly good bit of art of Lucy as a Jedi, and figured it needed a story to go with it. I’ve got some vague plans but nothing too concrete, this is just for fun.