Star Wars STAR WARS: EPISODE XII: LEGACY OF THE FORCE

IC: Captain Remal
Aboard the Chimaera, the Battle of Jakku

It all came together at once.

"I hear you, Rhoen," said Wedge Antilles. "All hands -"

Eeth Koth had returned, and not a moment too soon! The X-wing swept across the path of the TIEs, too focused on Talon and Syal and Kare and Poe and Tahiri and Seha and Val -

Remal called out over the comms. "Opening fire -"

The Chimaera's lights dimmed at the power being drawn by the final shot of the Crystal Phase Shifter.

The blast shot out, vanishing for a moment against the backdrop of a huge detonation -

Behind Daala?

The Errant Venture, loaded with a sizeable amount of the Adumari munitions left by Trec, detonated in the middle of the First Order formation of assault carriers, wrecking the formation -

The enemy Dreadnought, caught weaving to port of the fleet to get a shot at the Megador, was hit with the shockwave and was suddenly aflame -

TIEs scattered -

The remaining carriers cracked -

The shields of the Megador gave out -

And then sensors equalised, and Daala's sensors would confirm that the Crystal Phase weapon had fired, and hit Thrawn's flagship -

The First Order battlecruiser was suddenly melting from the bridge down, as the superweapon chewed through -

By this point the rest of Daala's fleet had flamed out, the Chimaera had lost shields -

The Scythe opened fire with the full force of its heavy turbolasers and the burning Dreadnought was bleeding debris and a wave of secondary detonations were working along the upper hull -

The TIE Daggers fell into utter confusion, retreating back towards Starkiller Base II.

Because the way was completely open.

For the Chimaera, first, then the surviving fighters flew by Syal, Val, Kare, Talon, Eeth, Tahiri and Seha -

A flight of only seven fighters.

With the Millennium Falcon, Wild Karrde and Lady Luck, it was perhaps the most dangerous squadron ever fielded by the Rebels, New Republic or Galactic Alliance -

There were hundreds of disorganised TIEs between the Megador and Starkiller Base, but Thrawn's battlecruiser was turning aside -

Leaving the Megador, Scythe and Chimaera as the only capital ships left -

The plague of gravity well anomalies remained from the massive superweapon, and it began to ponderously turn -

Back their way.

They would have to gun it.

They would have to keep those TIEs on the run -

They would have to go for it.

Poe, aboard the Millennium Falcon, called out. "On me!"

He gunned the engines of the aging YT-1300, and charged -

Sidling around the bulk of Thrawn's battlecruiser came a smaller vessel. A First Order light cruiser, escorted by a squadron of TIE Defenders. The pennant code of the light cruiser was Springhawk.

Thrawn wasn't done.

The light cruiser opened fire on the Chimaera, from the side, and ion fire played merry havoc with the aging Star Destroyer -

The TIE Defenders swept ahead, four heading towards the bridge of Daala's warship, and the remaining eight rushing the battered survivors of the Jedi and Sith and Resistance Wing.

The very last fight.

Could they do it?

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IC: The Master of Masters



So.

He’d met up with Aryan and Sybelle.

Then, Adam.

Thereafter, Iella Wesseri.

Beforehand, a side chat with Face Loran, and he’d likely have to go and chat to Daala before long. Or maybe that Tof King again… or maybe…

Definitely Zeseem, Iudex and Atin-Kot when this was all said and done.

Sheesh.

This was harder than managing five apprentices at once. Back on Nouane. Memories, eh?

And so, yet again, the Master of Masters stepped into the World Between Worlds.



And there he was.

Anakin Skywalker.



The new Father of Balance.

However, the Master wasn’t furtively sneaking through portals so he could be everywhere and anywhere (and nowhere) at once. This time he sauntered right up to the man, who was looking pensively at a growing black void in the distance.

Anakin turned, his eyes briefly yellowing. “You.” He ignited his blade without question, crimson bursting from the hilt.

The Master held up his hands. “Yes, it’s me!”

“Do you have any realisation -“

“The damage I’ve caused? Yes. I know. Purposely, too.”

“The previous Father died because of -“

“I know, I know,” the Master stressed. “Because of Palpatine, I know.”

“And you took him as your sixth apprentice!?” Anakin stepped up to the Master, blade pointed at his throat.

The Master took on a voice, as he was want to do. “You want to kill me, don’t you?” The serpentine tones of Palpatine.

Anakin hesitated. “I would very much like to,” he said, quoting himself, in the offices of 500 Republica, interrogating then-Chancellor Palpatine, in a room with crimson walls, with four immense statues watching. The statues of Sistros, Yanjon, Braata and Faya - and a little statue of the demigod of deceit, Wapoe, too.

To think the Master had a hand even in that moment of his life… and here Anakin was, repeating one of his mistakes, as he had then - or, rather, the Master was manipulating him to. “Y’know,” Anakin said, darkly. “If I’d just struck down Palpatine, and not gone to Mace, then it would have been over.”

“It would have been much better if you had!” The Master said, arms spread. “Trust me!”

Anakin deactivated his blade, closing his eyes. “I already know about the Changes, about the Three Twilight Timelines.”

“Also good, it saves me on exposition.” The Master indicated the big black void. “Kinda risky, opening up the World Between Worlds, letting Jedi and Sith across time come together, to defeat Palpatine once and for all.”

“That creation isn’t Palpatine,” Anakin bit out, with clear eyes when they opened again.

“Not yet,” the Master chimed in.

“Snoke’s ring lured Barriss, Ahsoka and Krayt into the mindscape that Palpatine has created -“

“Memoryscape,” the Black Coat clarified. “Palpatine’s ritual is trying to remake him out of the shared memories of everyone he has absorbed into his trap. It’s a bit of Vitiate, and a bit of Abeloth, and a lot of bother.”

“Genetic immortality?”

A snort. “Memory is immortality. As long as I’m remembered, and with a couple other things in place, I’ll never be just a memory.”

Anakin glowered at him. “Is that so?”

“That’s different. You’re a One. The One, actually.” The Master wasn’t threatened. “So, when are you going to pull the trigger? Before or after Starkiller kills everyone?”

The Father turned away. “I need Barriss and Ahsoka.”

“Well, that is not ideal,” the Master chuckled. “Could I suggest a proxy? A stand-in? And don’t you need Krayt too?”

“No,” Anakin said. “The Ones functioned for millennia without a fourth element.”

“Chaos,” supplied the Master. “Eldritch monsters, dark witches, intergalactic exile, and black hole prisons.”

“Yes.”

“So I was right. You can end all of this fighting, just like the Celestials did?” The Master sniffed. “And the prior Father didn’t think to intervene once in the last I don’t know - thirty millennia?”

“It’s not a decision to be made lightly,” Anakin said, firmly.

“So, let me be in-charge of it.” The Master said. “I’ll do it, and your conscience gets to be clean, and I can take all the blame for -“ Suddenly, he reached for his throat.

“Careful,” Anakin said, his fingers cupped to throttle him. “You don’t want to choke on your aspirations.” He released the Master, who took in gulps of air.

“Very funny, Lord Vader,” he quipped.

“I’ll do what must be done,” Anakin said, paraphrasing Palpatine.

“I’m sure,” the Master said evenly. “But keep in mind I spent a lot of time and energy shuffling the last Ones off the immortal coil, because they refused to stop their interference in the lives of mortals.” A sniff. “They were very content for trillions to die in their God games.”

“I’m aware.”

As the Master turned to go, he looked at the cloaked man. At the Black Coat who called himself Wapoe, called himself Arc, called himself Foreteller, and so many other names. “I know who you really are under that hood.”

The Master paused. “I could lie, and tell you that I’m a fortune teller. I could tell you that I want world peace, when I’m actually planning for its destruction.”

“Yes, you could. And you’d be telling me the truth.”

“And the lie.”

“Of course. Everything is, after all.”

“Ha!” The Master’s voice sounded to Anakin’s left, rather than his right, but he didn’t fall for it. “I’ll be watching you, Father.”

Anakin held out a small, squat, lightsaber hilt. It was silver and gold, with a red Kyber crystal - formerly black. Darth Sidious’s lightsaber - and before that, the Forcesaber of the Master of Masters - passed down to apprentice after apprentice, so that the Master could see the future. For his metaphysical eye was inside that very crystal, watching, seeing, creating not a future that flowed, but a fixed stream, one which could be resisted, and Changed, at great cost.

So when the Master spoke about watching, he was referring to this selfsame lightsaber hilt. Eventually one that was handed to the foretold traitor with the red flame - with Palpatine’s red hair - and so creating the Dark Man who would imbalance the Force. Not just imbalance it, but break it so thoroughly with his Darkness that the Father would sicken and die. All so the End of Time could be averted.

When the Master referred to watching, he was being literal. So Anakin simply squeezed with his hand and with the Force, and shattered the lightsaber, hilt and kyber crystal and all. “No,” Anakin said, calmly. “You won’t.”

The Master made an inarticulate noise of pain, clutched his chest, and fell off the platform - fell deep into the depths of the World Between Worlds.

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