Last Shot - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 10

Ersela Kryze

Ersela blinked awake, momentarily disoriented. As she took in her surroundings, the damaged inside of a First Order TIE fighter, she remembered the events that had led up to this. Fighting Kylo Ren with Kaia. Escaping from the Steadfast. Being pulled towards a huge floating mass in the middle of space. A bright light.

She removed her crash webbing and crawled out of her seat, ducking to avoid a shower of sparks from a loose wire. How had the ship landed? She crawled around her seat to check on Kaia, but she bit back a gasp of surprise when she realized Kaia wasn't in her seat.

The window on Kaia's side of the TIE was shattered, and Ersela decided that Kaia must have gone out that way. Hoping that her friend wasn't far, she climbed out the window as well, wincing slightly as she grazed her cheek on the sharp glass.

She stepped out into a clearing dotted with trees whose leaves suddenly changed from lush green to red and orange right before her eyes. Well that's...different, she thought, both mesmerized and cautious. She glanced up at the sky, noting that it was late afternoon.

"Kaia?" she called. "Where are you?" She scanned the clearing, which was surrounded on one side by a wall of rock with a cave nestled into it, and when she turned around, she saw her friend standing on the edge of the clearing, looking out at the landscape around them.

"This place..." Kaia muttered as she approached. "The Force is strong here." She turned to Ersela, a bleeding cut on her forehead dripping blood down her face. "How did you know I was a Jedi?"

Ersela stared back at her, unsure of how to explain before finally replying, "I figured it out after a little while. I'm surprised no one noticed you and Cora carry around your lightsabers everywhere." She unclipped Cora's lightsaber from her belt and studied it for a moment, admiring the craftsmanship. "And I did see you two training once, but don't worry, no one else knows." She offered the lightsaber to Kaia, but the Jedi just shook her head.

"You can hold on to it for now," she told her. "You might need it." Ersela nodded and clipped the lightsaber back into her belt, taking a moment to stare out at the strange world around them before she turned back towards the damaged TIE fighter.

"We need to fix this ship and get out of here as soon as possible," she remarked. When Kaia didn't respond, she glanced back at her friend, whose brow was furrowed as if she were straining to hear something. "What is it?"

Kaia didn't respond, but instead started moving towards a path along the cliff that connected to the mountainous side of the clearing. Ersela watched her go, confused, but she didn't try to stop her.

She debated following, but by the time she made up her mind, Kaia was gone, and darkness was somehow already falling. Fog settled over the clearing, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground only a few feet from Ersela and she jumped.

The trees around her suddenly started to die, and their trunks began to glow an eerie bluish-white. Ersela took several steps back towards the wreckage of the TIE fighter, pressing herself against it so that she was at least safe from one angle. She forced herself to remain calm, knowing that fear would only make things worse.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she tensed, putting one hand on Cora's lightsaber. "Who's there?" she called out cautiously. She saw a figure materialize in the fog and she pulled out the lightsaber and activated it, the blue blade humming to life. "Who are you?"

As the figure stepped into view, Ersela recognized Mandalorian armor, specifically that of the Nite Owls, her mother's group.

"Take off your helmet," she ordered, raising her weapon defensively. The figure did as she commanded, slowly removing their helmet to reveal a ginger-haired human female with a face splashed with freckles and a wry smile.

"Mother," Ersela gasped, lowering her lightsaber, though only slightly.

"Hey, kiddo," Bo-Karan Kryze responded, putting her helmet under her arm.

"You're not real," Ersela muttered, resuming her defensive position.

Bo-Katan laughed. "No I'm not," she agreed. "You always were smarter than rest. That's why you were always destined to be Mand'alor."

Suddenly, they were standing in the throne room on Sundari, the capital city of Mandalore. Ersela blinked, temporarily thrown off by the change in setting. Her mother, or rather not-her-mother, regarded her with mild amusement.

"Why did you bring me here?" Ersela asked, pointing the lightsaber at her fake mother. Bo didn't flinch, and she maintained her smile.

"To show you what you could be," she replied, gesturing towards the balcony to their right. Ersela pulled the lightsaber away slowly and deactivated it, putting it back on her weapons belt, and moved towards the balcony, her mother close behind her.

She emerged onto the glass balcony to see the sunlit capital and a crowd of cheering people below. She glanced back at her mother, whose smile became one of encouragement, and she waved her on.

Ersela turned back around to look back over her people, and she realized she was suddenly dressed in a traditional Mand'alor dress, and her hair was done up with an impossibly large and magnificent headdress. She glanced back at Bo once more, feeling more and more uneasy.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" her mother asked, her face growing serious. "This is what you were meant to do. To lead our people."

"I know," Ersela replied, looking back at the capital stretched out before her. She rested her hands on the railing of the balcony, observing the faces of the citizens cheering below. "But this doesn't feel right. Not now."

Her mother's face grew hard and her green eyes sparkled with anger. Her voice echoed as she spoke. "You must accept your fate!" Ersela stumbled as the scenery shifted, and she was suddenly standing in the throne room again, except this time there were sounds of battle outside, her dress was in tatters, her headdress gone, and the building was damaged and burning. "Accept your destiny!" Bo-Katan raised her blaster, aiming it straight at Ersela.

Ersela reaches for her weapons belt, hoping the lightsaber was still there, only to find that it wasn't. Fear flooded through her and she couldn't breathe as a menacing smile spread on her mother's face.

"This isn't real!" she cried desperately. Bo didn't seem to hear her.

"This is your destiny," she told her daughter. "And you can't escape it." And then she pulled the trigger.

Ersela was in the clearing again. She clutched her hand to her chest, where her mother had shot her, breathing rapidly. When she drew her hand away, there was no wound, it had only been a vision, but she was still unnerved. Was it her destiny to die as Mand'alor?

She didn't want to think about it. Instead, she turned back to the TIE fighter, which was still where it had crashed. "We have to get off this crazy planet," she muttered to herself.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her, and then she heard the sound of lightsabers clashing. Then Kaia's voice rang out over the clearing as two dueling figures came into view. "Ersela, run!"

A/N: So, yeah, this chapter was a little different. For those of you who have watched The Clone Wars, yes this chapter does take place on Mortis! I thought it would be cool to include it in the story to help further the plot and reveal some character backstories (plus I love the Mortis arc).