Mastermind

Part Two

Everyone was stressed as they flew past the blockade until the secret Imperial codes allowed them to fly towards Endor when both Luke and Erda got a bad feeling about Vader's presence on the Dreadnought Star Destroyer they flew past. While the crew within the shuttle remained solely aware of Leia's relationship with Erda, it did not occur to them that their intimacy would be openly displayed as she shared words of comfort to him as they prepared for the attack. Once they landed, the strike team journeyed through the forest in the direction of the shield generator, cautiously keeping an eye out for Imperial scouts. 

"You okay?" Luke asked Erda as they walked through the forest. 

Erda shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. You sensed what I sensed, right? I'm glad you've accepted your heritage, you know... as a Jedi. I mean, I've lost my connection to my past life but I still got it in me. I just, need some training. Someone to teach me. Would you... be willing?" 

"Of course. After all, we Jedi have to look out for each other, am I right?" He chuckled. 

"Yeah. Right. There's just one issue, though." 

Erda noticed Luke smiling at him as bringing up the fact that he lost his lightsaber and no longer owns one made him feel like a fish out of water: being a Jedi but did not own a lightsaber. 

"I lost my lightsaber a long time ago. When I first began to survive on my own after my master died. B-Before Raxus Prime, I mean," he explained shyly. 

"Oh. I see. Don't worry about it. After all, I brought you something I thought would cheer you up." 

Luke produced a secondary lightsaber and presented it to Erda. Surprised by this, he accepted it and ignited the blade, which produced a blue blade. 

"L-Luke... thank you!" Erda said gratefully as he deactivated the lightsaber and held it in his hand as the two shook hands. 

A twig snapped under Erda's feet, which caused a contraption to swing a thick tree log at Luke and Erda. With only a second to react, Erda threw Luke to the side as he accepted the full blow of the log that launched him off his feet and down a hill, miraculously not hitting anything along the way until he ceased rolling upon reaching the bottom of the steep hill that the other Rebels refused to run down. The sudden predicament stumped the Rebels as they didn't have a choice but to continue with the mission despite Leia and Chewbacca's protests. As much as Han and Luke wanted to find Erda, the mission was far more important despite how upset Leia became, begrudging his carelessness for his friend's life. 

Reluctantly, Leia followed behind the group of Rebels who snuck through the forest when a few scout troopers were spotted. Both Han and Chewbacca snuck ahead while the rest of the group waited silently as they watched Han sneak up behind a scout trooper when a twig snapped, alerting the troopers of his presence. One trooper ran to call for help while the other bravely fought Han while Luke and Leia pursued that trooper fleeing when they found two more making their escape on speeders. Chewbacca shot down the second scout trooper as Leia quickly jumped onto a speeder with Luke riding with her. As Leia gained on the closest scout, Luke was able to jump aboard that speeder and hijacked it when two more snuck up behind them and began to fire at them. 

Luke put on the brakes so to get behind the two pursuers pursuing them while Leia slowly gained on the one ahead of her while Luke used the blasted mounted on the speeder to blast the two speeders. Leia was able to keep up the pursuit until she fell off her speeder and landed safely which cost that scout dearly as the distraction resulted in him crashing into a toppled tree. Luke also ended up falling off his speeder, but not before that scout sped back around to advance on Luke. With his lightsaber drawn, Luke timed his attack perfectly so that the front of the speeder was severed, causing the scout to spiral out of control into a tree. While Leia slumbered after the exhilarating chase, a native to the forest came along and prodded Leia with a somewhat blunt staff with a carved rock on the end to shape it like a spear; a poorly made spear, but a dangerous weapon nonetheless. 

When Leia awoke, she made the native growl intensely at her despite its adorableness. She was quick to befriend it by offering it snacks when a scout ambushed them. The sneaky native distracted the scout holding Leia at blaster point, allowing her to grab ahold of a log which she used to knock the scout unconscious before grabbing her blaster and shot a second riding away on a speeder. It was there that the native escorted Leia to its village in the trees while her friends - minus Erda, who still remained unconscious in the middle of uncharted forest land - went in search for her before being caught in a net by more restless natives. It was there, that they discovered Threepio as a god and planned on cooking Threepio's allies as a gift to the god. 

Later that day, Erda finally awoke in pain, but grateful to be alive as he counted himself lucky that he was still in the forest and not in an Imperial cell or chained to a table to be interrogated by Darth Vader. But then again, he was glad to consider he didn't split his skull on the way down the steep hill. It then hit him that he was absent from his team. Pain swelled in Erda's body, mostly in his legs as he was relieved to find his lightsaber close by. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get far with a broken leg. Erda was barely able to stand on one leg, let alone sit up as he noticed his ankle broken very badly. Luckily, a suitable long stick he found close by and used it as a walking stick as he ventured off on his own with a fear of what monstrosity lurked within the woods.