On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter VII

Luna knew that she should have stuck by the cargo. She knew that she shouldn't have dared step inside the main building. She knew that in all honesty, stalking the Rebels was the last thing she should ever be doing again. Such a habit should have permanently ended months ago—ignoring the fact her ship mate was a Rebel Grey Jedi of course.

Did that stop her?

Did stuff like that ever?

The answer was no.

This was one of those times that Luna really hated how stubborn she could be. Yes, she could leave, but what if something happened and they needed her help? What if the Hands showed up? What if they were killed?

Luna was far too loyal, compassionate, and stubborn to let any of those possibilities come to light. She had to make sure that such a thing didn't happen with her own eyes; she knew she would be unable to live with herself if such a thing happened and she could have stopped it but didn't. Bottom line, she was just too loyal to Vader despite everything to not do something that he would have wanted her to do.

So, here she was, stalking Luke, Leia, Han, and Artoo in an Imperial base. Again.

One of these days, Luna would be able to leave behind her past connections to Star Wars and make her own choices not based off of her old love for all of the characters.

One day....

And then she'd be able to focus on finding a way to fully break herself away from Vader....

Or, as was the more likely scenario, Luna would never manage to be able to and if and when one of them got captured by the Empire, she would be there to break them out and be dragged back into the world of the Skywalkers.

And so she followed them like a shadow, just as she had always done.

~*~

Luke walked into an assembly room and stopped in his tracks causing Han to nearly run straight into him.

It wasn't an assembly of ships or brand new weapons, as Luke had first thought, but, unless he was greatly mistaken, synthetic kyber crystals, the production of which had grounded to a halt as soon as the Rebels had entered.

And there were also half a dozen humans that were staring at the group with sickly yellow eyes.

"Oh, hi, we got lost," Han said with a nervous grin as he tried to savor the situation.

"Did you?" one of the Emperor's Hands asked. It was a girl. Her voice sounded board and dreamy, as if she wasn't really there. As Luke was beginning to notice as a theme with all of the Emperor's Hands, her skin was as pale as paper and looked just as breakable while her hair was a dirty red-white color. She also appeared to be just a little taller than Luke himself, yet another theme he had noticed was that all the Hands always seemed to be nearly the exact height. The six of the Hands all looked like siblings, as had all the others they had run into.

"Yeah, we were looking for the mess hall," Luke said, trying to swallow his nerves.

"Were you?" another asked, a boy this time. His voice sounded equally as board as the girl's. Luke nodded. The Hand sneered. "I don't believe you."

"We didn't mean to disturb you, we'll leave immediately," Leia said quickly as the three of them backed up towards the door. This was bad.

"I don't think so," the girl from before said, waving her hand. A moment later the door behind them slammed shut. Luke felt the sickening feel of one of the Hands' presence run over him.

"You're bright," another girl said, smiling sweetly while her tone had an undercurrent of double meaning. Luke noticed her teeth were pointed. That was new.

"We really should be going," Han said, his voice unable to hide all of his nerves as he reached for his blaster. Luke found his hand reaching for his hidden lightsaber as both he and Han positioned themselves in front of Leia.

"I don't think so," another boy said. The Hands turned on their red lightsabers unanimously and started walking forward, sick smiles on their faces that all looked the same, yet different. "This will be the best fun we've had in awhile."

Luke quickly tried to reach through the Force to Vader through their bond, but found that he couldn't, the Sith were cutting off his connection to his father through the Force. His eyes widened as fear gripped him. Luke turned on his emerald lightsaber, preparing to fight even though he knew that he would never be able to win.

"Sis, contact Father," Luke muttered under his breath.

"Comms are blocked," Leia whispered in reply as her sapphire blade sprang to life. Han drew his blaster, but held his fire, they all knew what would probably happen if he began to shoot blasts at the Hands.

As one, the Sith suddenly started running, shrieking war cries. Before Luke could even react, someone was in the Sith's way. She was dressed in black and her saber was an ever changing array of colors. It took Luke about a second to realize it and another to recognize the girl that had so fearlessly engaged the Sith present.

"Luna?!"

"What?!" Han asked. Luke didn't reply to his friend's inquiry. He had already attacked the Hands with Leia close behind, ready to help the once Sith apprentice.

~*~

Ahsoka's comlink blinked to life. She quickly muted her side of the comm channel with the Rebels before answering.

"I need Kaytee. And the fighter. And inform anyone that's listening and is on the side of the Rebellion that help would be great," Tia's voice said, coming through the comm. She sounded somewhat worried, and Ahsoka could hear the sounds of....lightsabers?!

"Tia, what's going on?" Ahsoka asked worriedly.

"Can't talk! Later!" Tia's end of the comm shut off.

"Tia—" Ahsoka cut herself off knowing that it was hopeless. She quickly turned the other machine back on. "Fulcrum to Skywalker, do you copy?" Ahsoka waited a few seconds for a reply. "I repeat, Fulcrum to Skywalker, do you copy?"

There was no reply.

"Lightsabers," Ahsoka hissed as if the word itself was a curse before shutting off the machine. She didn't waste another moment, quickly racing out of her room and ordering Kaytee into the starfighter as Ahsoka started up the ship. Forget about what Tia wanted, the Illusion could survive being left alone, especially when lives were on the line. The team of Rebels was already inside and probably in the same position as Tia. Ahsoka knew that her friend would have never drawn attention to herself needlessly.

~*~

Vader had been waiting as patiently as possible when the comm came to life again. Everyone had been quiet as the others got further inside.

"Fulcrum to Skywalker, do you copy?" Fulcrum's voice asked, immediately grabbing Vader's attention. He waited for Luke to reply, but became tenser as when there was none. "I repeat, Fulcrum to Skywalker, do you copy?"

Still no response.

"Lightsabers," Vader heard Fulcrum hiss before the comm went silent once more.

Lightsabers, why would—

The Emperor's Hands.

Vader immediately started up his TIE fighter before quickly heading to the Imperial base.