On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XXXIII

"Well, there's definitely some darkside user around here somewhere," Luna muttered to herself as she slipped through an abandoned hallway. She could feel it in the Force, though it wasn't a familiar presence.

As if she'd expect herself to be able to recognize anyone. Even if she had binged on Star Wars like her younger self on Earth and everything had been accurate, she wouldn't have been able to recognize anyone she hadn't met by Force presence alone without first meeting them in person.

Of course, by now some people she was at least familiar with should have landed. Though Luna hadn't risked trying to sense for them, she knew Luke, Leia, and Vader were likely planetside by this point.

Perhaps the Rebels had received her message by now, informing them of the new-ish plan—working under the assumption Vader hadn't managed to inform them before they had left for the mission. If he had....

Well, preparation had never hurt anyone.

Luna ducked into an alcove, dodging a group of stormtroopers on patrol before slipping back out and continuing down the hallway. She couldn't help the feeling that things seemed too quiet—not that she had a decent comparison to, people always ensured to be busy and active when she visited bases in the past.

....Though one would expect one of the Emperor's Hands would foster a similar result. Perhaps it was just the part of the base she was in.

....Or it was all one big trap.

Well, even if they had prepared properly for her, she doubted they'd properly prepared for Vader.

You need to stop thinking that way, Luna, the once Shadow reminded herself, shaking her head. Yeah, Vader would be around today, but she couldn't be seen by him, let alone even consider relying on him. It was a habit she needed to break.

Just because he'd always caught her whenever she fell before....

Well, the point was that he wasn't going to do that anymore. Luna could only rely on herself. And she was good with that—she'd lived the majority of her life that way.

What else was she supposed to do with the rest of it?

Returning her mind back to the situation at hand, Luna made her way through the compound until finally arriving at the control room and clearing it of Imperials. Ten minutes later she was running the entire network.

Now, it'd be awesome if....

"Looks like you've got a good system going," a voice said from behind her just as the lights flickered for half a second.

Bingo.

"I was wondering if you'd show up to help, Apollo," Luna said, smiling as she looked back to see the ghost boy. It had been startling, to say the least when he'd first showed up unannounced on the Illusion not long after she'd left Vader. The ex-Shadow had gotten used to his surprise visits over time, but he hadn't appeared much since she and Ahsoka had teamed up, which made sense as explaining a ghosts or seemingly random drains on the Illusion's power stores would have likely been more trouble than it was worth. All the same, it was nice to see him now that she was more used to the entire concept of her long dead best friend showing up at odd intervals.

"And miss my chance to be Rebel? I don't think so," he responded with a grin. "What can I help with?"

"Could you do a sweep of the place, figure out where the Emperor's Hands are?"

"Already done. Sublevels for the moment."

"Of course," Luna sighed, turning back to the screens and bringing up a feed of the numerous Sith. That's where the information the Rebellion was after was most likely stored—it made sense that's where the Hands would be stationed. "Do you know how close the Rebels are?"