CHAPTER XII

"–with whatever orders I gave you, but know that they were given by the Emperor's command. His spies are everywhere and–"

The voice still spoke in Starkiller's ear as he slowly stirred awake. The low baritone voice, comforting in its familiarity, didn't properly register in his groggy state. He listened to the voice, to the sound of breathing with eyes half closed until his mind caught up who the voice belonged to. His eyes shot open and he scrambled up only to remember it was merely a recording and there was no one else in the room with him.

He tore the earpiece out and threw it on the floor and slumped to sit at the edge of his bunk, hand reaching to brush his hair –only to meet short stubble against his scalp. He ran his palm across his head. His hair had been shaven, but he hadn't even noticed until now. It made him want to throw the earpiece across the room all over again.

How he had even been able to sleep with that voice in his ear was beyond him. He felt the short military cut hair again. He had liked his hair the way it had been. No wonder he felt so alien in his own skin. His muscles, unused yet kept in shape over what must have been months ached from the escape from the Empirical. He didn't remember ever feeling this stiff.

He reached for his jacket, pulling it on as he grumpily made his way through the training room. He would have to find those trackers and then figure out what to do about his new orders. Hopefully PROXY had already started with the trackers. He wasn't sure how long he had slept, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours. The trackers could wait a little longer. He wanted to check on Juno first.

He slammed the panel to open the door, revealing the pilot crouched down by an open floor hatch.

"Juno," he startled.

"Starkiller!" Juno gasped. The tool she had held fell from her hand and she quickly got up on her feet. "You're up! Thank the stars, I was scared you wouldn't wake up at all."

Starkiller blinked at her. She had been worried about him when it was her who had been unconscious right before he took his nap. "Why would you think that?"

"PROXY told me you were in coma for six months. We were getting worried you'd slipped back into it."

Coma? Of course.

"How long was I..?"

"Little over seventeen hours," PROXY replied, joining them from the cockpit.

"Oh," was all Starkiller could say. "Wow. Okay, that–that is a lot considering I already slept for six months straight," he tried to finish with an awkward joke.

"Are you alright?" Juno asked, stepping over a toolbox toward him. He hadn't moved form the doorway.

"I know what happened." Her voice was gentle and the expression on her face softened sympathetically. Then she swallowed, flustering. She looked almost embarrassed.

"I–I might have, sort of, spied on you," she said, fingers nervously tugging at her shirt. Her voice took a shy, almost apologetic tone again as she confessed quietly: "I saw what happened. I saw him stab you."

Starkiller looked away, pretending it was the door's access panel he looked for. He stepped away from the doorway as the door closed behind him. "I'm fine."

Juno looked at him as if she wanted to press the issue. Before she could, Starkiller asked: "What about you? The last time I saw you... I thought you might die in my arms. Are you sure you should be up yet?"

"I'm all right," she said, folding her arms against her.

She didn't look all right. Her hair was up on a neat bun, but she wore civilian clothes, making it a mixture of the two sides of Juno he had met. One hiding herself with a shield of professionalism, one shining brightly and free. She had always been lean, but now her clothes hung on her like they belonged to someone else.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," he began. "What they did to you–"

"You didn't drag me into anything," she snapped with such anger that Starkiller flinched. "Darth Vader offered me a job –a mission, and I accepted it. And he betrayed us both."

He nodded weakly. "Yeah."

"The Empire... I gave my life to it," she said, bitter anger staining each word as her fingers clenched around her arms. "I was so proud of it, so happy when Vader picked me to fly in one of his squadrons. The greatest honour bestowed on me, ever. I did everything that was asked of me. And now I'm the traitor?"

She closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself. "I can't believe this happened. What are we going to do?"

Galen reached to touch her shoulder tentatively. Her eyes shot open at the contact. "Hey... Juno. We don't need to worry about that right now. I'm just so glad you're here. That you're alive."

She looked up at him and he knew she could see his eyes water at the mere thought of it. He was about to turn away when she grasped his arm. He started and turned to face her again.

"Thank you for coming for me," she said softly.

Galen's eyes darted to the hand holding him and he swallowed.

"I couldn't have left without my pilot," he said. A poor attempt to tease her. His faked almost-a-smile morphed to a sombre expression. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry for what they did to you."

Juno looked away and he could feel the pain she carried within her through the Force. She let go of his arm. "Yeah. Me, too."

"You look better now," Starkiller complimented in an attempt to lighten the mood.

She smiled weakly, but amusedly. "I look terrible. And so do you."

It was true. She was pale. Her skin seemed almost translucent. He could see a web of tiny veins and the skin around her eyes was purplish as if she hadn't slept in days. Her lips and the corners of her mouth were chapped. He knew he himself wasn't quite at his best yet, but unlike her, he at least had gone through extensive medical treatment.

"We've both seen better days," he agreed as they gazed into each other's eyes, slowly leaning closer. Then Galen swallowed and pulled away.

"PROXY, are we still in the same place?" he wanted to know.

He didn't see how Juno's shoulders slumped and a disappointed look passed her features.

"We have moved around some," the droid replied. It didn't seem bothered by anything shared between its two Human companions. "Captain and I have been looking for trackers as you instructed. We've found seven sources of weak, masked signals that have no known source. We have succeeded in locating three of them so far and they were all tracking devices."

"We've isolated two signals that are coming from the outer hull of the ship," Juno added. "The other is coming from main cannon area, the other is somewhere under the landing ramp. The Empire really wants to get to you."

"Well, we can't have that," Starkiller mused. "What about the remaining two?"

"We haven't exactly physically found them yet, but the other is coming from under the floor here," she replied, pointing at the maintenance hatch she'd been working on. "And one is in your training space."

Starkiller nodded. They would have to land somewhere to properly search for the ones on the hull, but the remaining two they could find and destroy now. "All right. We need to find them and get rid of them before we can make any plans. Let's get onto it. PROXY, you try chart a place for us to land and get rid of the trackers on the hull. An asteroid will work."

"I will find something, master," PROXY agreed.

Starkiller turned his attention back to Juno. "You sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine," she assured. "What they did to me– I don't understand it," she said. Her voice had become small and she herself appeared to shrink as well. "I was tortured. It was beyond horrible. I was never asked anything. They just hurt me."

"I'm so sorry," Starkiller said quietly. She must have been far from fine. Though as an Imperial pilot she would have had some degree of training, she would have had nothing near as extensive as he did to survive torture. He had a sudden urge to step closer and wrap his hands around Juno. He wanted to hold her again in his arms, but not with her barely clinging onto life like she had on the Empirical. He did not dare to approach her, scared of not being wanted and confused by even thinking of doing so. It was a fleeting thought at the back of his mind, one which he dismissed immediately.

This was his fault, too. If he had been more careful, if only he had been more alert... At least Juno had not been killed. He supposed he had his master to thank for that, too. But Starkiller doubted she would appreciate him saying so, considering her earlier words about Darth Vader. It could prove to be a problem. It should not have bothered him, but he realised he had hoped not to lie to her.

"We should get back to work," Juno said, clearly wanting something else to focus her attention on. She knelt down and picked up the instrument she had dropped earlier.

"You should probably eat something," she said, stepping down onto the ladder and quickly disappeared down to the maintenance space below. She did not want his company right now, so with one last glance toward her Starkiller decided to take her advice and headed for the galley, missing how she trembled against the ladder with a memory of pain and despair, and yearning for relief and safety she had felt with the young assassin's arms around her.

Combing through the entire outer hull of the Rogue Shadow provided Starkiller with plenty of time to think. PROXY had found them small, uninhabited moon with no atmosphere to speak off, orbiting an equally uninhabited gas giant. He had donned the space suit and headed out with PROXY –who of course had no need for such a thing. Juno remained onboard, keeping an eye on the long range scanners, ready to let them back in and jump out of the system if need be.

Starkiller had meant to plan for the next course of action. Darth Vader's orders were clear, yet how to approach such a massive task was not quite as simple. Two hours later he had no plan, and he found his thoughts slipping toward home. Towards Luke.

Luke lingered at the back of his mind like a memory of an uncomfortable dream. A gnawing feeling at the pit of his stomach grew the more he ignored it and the more he gave it thought.

He and Luke shared a bond they had nurtured through the years of sharing their training and their lives. No matter how far apart, the bond connected them through the Force. Though lightyears apart, Galen knew Luke was out there –yet he could not tell what could have been the source of the worry pinning his chest.

Perhaps it was simply Juno he truly worried about. He had no reason to worry about Luke. His brother would have been back home with Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen on Tatooine months ago. Was it their worry for him he felt? Surely, surely they knew what had happened and how he had nearly betrayed them all. Vader would have told Lekauf of his failure. The thought of having to face the Lieutenant who had never once disappointed Darth Vader turned his stomach. The thought of Uncle Owen's disapproving eyes had him hang his head in shame in the privacy of Rogue Shadow's underbelly.

Darth Vader had told him not go to Tatooine before the ship was cleared of trackers, but he had never forbidden Starkiller from going home at all –and despite the guilt he felt, the only place he now wanted to go was home. As soon as the Rogue Shadow was proven clear he would have Juno take them there.

"Master," PROXY's voice rang inside his helmet. "I have completed my section. No further hostile items found."

Starkiller sighed silently before activating his microphone.

"I'm nearly done, too," he replied, regretting the strain on his voice he knew Juno could hear through the comm. "Come over to this side and help me finish here."

They had located and destroyed the two tracking devices their scanners had picked up on Rogue Shadow's hull. Once they could be certain there was nothing else on her, they could move freely again. After half an hour more, Juno helped them back in through the airlock, and Starkiller still did not know what to tell her. He could sense her unease, her confusion…the hurt she carried within. He wished he could have eased her pain, if even a little.

"Well then..." she said as he stepped behind her to the cockpit. Her hand caressed the back of the captain's seat. When he said nothing, she moved around and claimed back her seat at Rogue Shadow's helm. Her fingers lingered above the controls.

"It's strange," she said. "I'm so used to just going where I'm told to. We could go anywhere now. The whole galaxy's in front of us and I… I don't know where to go."

"Tatooine," Starkiller breathed out the name.

"What?"

"Tatooine," Starkiller repeated, speaking up properly as he took the co-pilot's seat.

"But…the Empire," Juno began. "Won't Vader know to look for you there?"

"Maybe," he said, keeping his eyes on the barren landscape outside. "But there is something I have to do."

"And what is that?"

Starkiller could feel her eyes on him. Suspicious immediately. It filled him with unease to know he could not tell her the truth. His mistakes had led her despising the Darth Vader.

"You aren't going to tell me, are you?"

She sounded hurt. Angry.

"You won't like my reasons," he quietly stated. My lies, he corrected himself. Lies that could bring her to his cause.

"Why?" she demanded. "How would you know if you don't even try? If you want me piloting your ship, you need to tell me what the plan is. Because I could just leave. I could go anywhere and start over. I have nothing. The Empire took everything from me. I can never go back to my life!" she cried, shouting her final words, each hitting Starkiller like cast stones, making him shrink in his seat.

"I want revenge," he said in low voice after a moment of tad too long of a silence, gripping the armrest of his seat.

"What..?" she startled, confused and surprised by the claim.

"I want Darth Vader to pay for what he's done to me," he grunted the lie, finding it easier to say than he had ever expected. Perhaps a part of him truly wanted that. Maybe that was why his master had told him this was his chance for revenge. Of course he would know how Starkiller felt about his master –even before he knew it himself.

"I want that, too, but..." Juno began quietly. Her hand suddenly reached out to touch his knee. "Easier said than done."

Starkiller hated the compassion in her voice. He did not deserve her compassion, nor did he need it. He was deceiving her. He was not about to betray Darth Vader, not even if a part of him may have wanted that. He would never betray his master, because doing so would be betraying his family as well.

"I understand how you must feel, but...what can we do? The Empire stands between us and him. There are millions of them, and two of us. As much as I'd like to do something, wouldn't it be wiser to go somewhere where he'll never find us? If we fight the Empire, we'll end up dead or worse."

"We've got PROXY, so that makes three."

"I'm being serious," she claimed, but there was laughter in her tone. It made Starkiller feel a little better to have made her smile.

"I'm being serious, too."

"The three of us aren't enough to do it, either," she said sombrely.

"But there aren't just the three of us," Starkiller said slowly as an idea dawned on him. "There are thousands of people in the Galaxy who'd bring down the Empire if they could. There are resistance groups and terrorists and rebels in almost every system. I've fought them all my life."

"If they could," Juno stressed. She leant back to her seat, her hand leaving his knee. "But so far no one has and I don't think anyone will. We've both seen the Empire from the inside. Its resources are infinite."

"Just because no one's done it doesn't mean it can't be done," he said with sudden, growing confidence and exhilaration. Yes, yes he was onto something with this! Vader wasn't setting him up for something impossible.

"So you'd be the one to do it?" she questioned cynically.

"No, of course not. Well...no, but. Maybe? Someone has to do it."

Has to? Did he really just say that?

Juno shook her head, and for a moment he thought she would know everything he said was a lie despite his genuine excitement now that he was about to come up with a plan.

"You just want to get to Vader because of what he did to you," she said.

"But I can't get to him on my own terms," Starkiller argued, not quite knowing what he was trying to say. He only knew he had to get Juno on his side, and he had to find a way to create an army to stand against the Empire as his master had commanded. Or the Emperor had. Why would the Emperor want that? Should he even do it, if it was the Emperor's command?

Proceed with whatever orders I gave you, Vader had said.

Even non-sensical ones? But should he ignore the order, he would risk Darth Sidious knowing Vader wasn't done with planning the Emperor's demise.

I must trust you, Master, he thought. Once Darth Vader was able to speak freely, he would give Starkiller new orders.

"I escaped him, I destroyed his personal research lab. He knows if we ever cross paths again I would be an enemy. He would find a way to kill me before I ever got close to him."

"So you what? Join a planetary resistance group on the Outer Rim?"

"It's somewhere to start."

Juno let out a heavy breath, sinking into her seat as she did. Shaking her head just a tad she straightened herself up again and reached for the console. "Any resistance groups on Tatooine?"

Starkiller thought of Lekauf. "Who knows, but there may at least be some information."

Juno landed the Rogue Shadow gracefully to its docking bay it had left some six months ago. It was early morning in this part of the planet, and the twin suns were only beginning to rise. She remained behind to finish with final post-landing checks as Starkiller stalked out.

He was received by Lieutenant Erv Lekauf. The man had stood in the shadows, but as soon as Starkiller walked down the landing ramp, the man hastened to meet him.

"Lieutenant–" Starkiller began to greet him when the man stepped closer, throwing his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. Galen tensed at the physical contact, but allowed himself to relax a moment later. He couldn't recall Lekauf ever being this affectionate with him. He extended his arms to return the gesture, and awkwardly patted the man's back.

"I can barely believe it's you truly you," Lekauf said hoarsely, arms still tightly around the Sith assassin. "We'd nearly given up on hope."

"I'm sorry," Galen replied automatically, too ashamed to think of anything beyond his own failures.

Lekauf let him go, but his hands still held his shoulders. "You owe me no apology."

Galen did not agree, but it was drilled into him not to argue with his superiors.

"Aunt Beru and Uncle O-" he began.

"Are eager to see you," Lekauf cut him off, releasing his shoulders. "Have you any word from Lord Vader?"

"Nothing you wouldn't already know," he said, not looking forward to have his failures analysed by the Lieutenant. No doubt the man knew everything. "We can discuss it later."

"And where's–" Lekauf cut himself off as his sharp eyes fixed onto something behind Galen.

Juno. Galen could feel her presence and knew she had stepped out before turning to face the ship. PROXY wasn't far behind her. She had followed him far quicker than he had expected.

"Is this your pilot?" Lekauf asked.

"Yes," Galen confirmed. "Her name's Juno Eclipse. Her loyalty's been compromised. Tell her nothing," he instructed quickly under his breath as she approached them.

"Very well," the man agreed. "Go home, take my swoop. I will look after her."

"Thank you," he said silently as Lekauf walked up to Juno.

"Miss Eclipse?" the man greeted, feigning ignorance to her identity.

"Captain Eclipse," came a tetchy correction. "And you are?"

She was right to be suspicious, Galen supposed. He had told her nothing of Lekauf, save to letting her know there was someone he wanted to meet.

"Apologies, Captain. My mistake. I'm Erv Lekauf, but please, call me Erv."

Juno's eyes sought Galen's.

"Lekauf helps me look after the ship," he explained.

She accepted the explanation, but after a few polite words exchanged later she pulled him to side, not caring if she may have come off as rude. Lekauf took the opportunity to approach PROXY.

"Is he who he says he is? Can we trust him?"

Galen considered how to best reply. "He's loyal to the Empire, but as long as you say nothing, we'll be fine."

Juno crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at him. "I don't like this."

"You'll be safe, I promise. There's somewhere I need to go, but I leave PROXY with you."

"I still don't like this."

"Trust me, Juno."

She glanced at the Lieutenant and PROXY. "This is about Skywalker, isn't it?"

"Don't say that name out loud," Galen snapped immediately.

"And don't you lie to me," she demanded quietly, fingers digging into her arms. "You didn't come for this guy, and you aren't here to enlist to a terrorist group."

Galen sighed. "Yes, fine. I came here for him," he admitted. "I need to speak with him."

Juno unfolded her arms and the expression on her face softened. "All right."

"Don't speak of him to Lekauf. You shouldn't even–"

"Know that he exists? I remember. It's okay. Go find him. I won't say a word about him."

She gave up on the subject far easier than Galen had expected, but he pushed the thought aside for now.

"PROXY," he called. "I'll leave you with Juno. I'll be back by nightfall."

"Stay as long as you need," Lekauf said. "There's no rush."

"Nightfall," Galen stressed. He ought not to forget he was on a mission. He needed to find a moment to speak with Lekauf in private. Surely the man would know more and could help him figure out how to proceed with Vader's orders. Perhaps Lekauf could even give him Vader's true words.

The Lieutenant shook his head and pressed an ignition key to his hand. "Take the bloody swoop and go. Your Aunt and Uncle are worried sick."

The man turned to Juno who still waited where Galen had left her. "Captain Eclipse. Follow me, please. We have two suns and it will get very hot very soon, and I can see you are not made for such weather. My home is close by and I would be delighted to offer you refuge from the heat while we wait for Starkiller to return."

Galen wasted no time. Lekauf's swoop was parked right outside the docking bay, and within moments he rode through the familiar streets to the edges of the city and accelerated to full speed as soon as he left the city perimeter. The engine whined and sand blew up in the air in his wake. It felt good to be going home. No matter what turmoils the Galaxy went through, no matter what happened to him, Tatooine remained the same.

It was a long ride from Mos Espa to the Great Chott salt flat and he had a lot of time to contemplate. He was excited and glad to see his family, but part of him wanted to flee and never see them again. Master Vader must have told them of his failure. He dreaded having to face them after coming so close to exposing them to the worst kind of danger in the entire Galaxy. They could have all faced fate worse than death because of him.

Even so, he could not wait to see Luke. He needed to see his brother with his own eyes to banish the non-sensical gnawing worry at the back of his mind that insisted something was terribly, horribly wrong. Vader would not have allowed him to live if something had happened to Luke.

The suns were hight up above him when he finally hastily parked his vehicle by the dome shaped entrance building to his home. He tore off Lekauf's driving goggles, and left them hanging on the handle as he hurried down the steps to the sunken courtyard.

"Aunt Beru?" he called, making his way towards the doorway. She appeared from the house and before he knew it, he was running to her waiting arms.

"Galen," she murmured as she embraced her boy. "Oh, Galen. We've missed you."

"I'm sorry," Galen whispered, blinking against the sting in his eyes. He saw Uncle Owen over Beru's shoulder. Lekauf must have told them he was coming. Otherwise Owen would have never been home at this hour.

"Shh, you don't have to apologise," she said. "All that matters is that you are home now."

Beru let go, and Owen stepped in. He rested his hand on the boy's shoulder and looked him in the eye. There was no disapproval in his gaze that Galen had so feared to see. The man embraced the boy briefly, strong arms enveloping him in. Though Galen was tall, he felt small in Owen's presence. Much like he did in Vader's.

"Welcome home, son," Owen said before letting him go.

"Is Luke with you?" Beru asked, though her voice revealed she knew the answer. Why would she ask that? A cold fear gripped Galen's heart once more.

"Did he not come home?"

She shook her head, hugging herself tightly.

A sinking feeling settled into his gut and Galen paled. "Has he been gone since I left?"

"He came back without you," she said.

"And then went looking for you," Owen finished.

"But– Me? Why?"

"You didn't come back."

"But– I was– I–" Galen fumbled for words. "I thought Vader would have told you."

"We haven't heard from him in a long time," Beru said quietly. "Erv's been unable to contact him for months."

Galen felt like shattering to pieces. Of course. Of course his punishment would continue. It was up to him to explain his failure, and to make amends for the pain he had caused to his family. Vader had not told them, and it was Galen's fault they had gone months without knowing whether he was even alive.

His eyes shot up to meet Owen's as the man placed his hand on his shoulder once more.

"Come inside, son. Tell us everything you know."

A glass of cold blue milk met the table. The sound seemed too loud in the silence of the Lars living room.

"I'm so sorry," Galen repeated what must have been the dozenth time by now. "I should have brought him back the moment I noticed he was onboard. But–"

Beru reached out to squeeze his hand, still cool and damp from having held the glass. A drop of condensed water ran down the glass's edge. Beru had been in such rush to hear his story she hadn't even remembered to set down a coaster for him. She was normally very strict about that when it came to the caf table that had belonged to her grandmother.

"You were scared to tell Vader. I know. I understand."

"This is all my fault," Galen said, head hung in shame. They knew now. They knew how his carelessness had exposed him to Sidious's spies. How he had forced his master's hand to slay him and then salvage him. If only he had had the backbone to tell his master the truth before he ever set his foot on Felucia.

"I should have told Master. He would have sent Luke back and none of this would have happened. He wouldn't have sent me to kill Ti when Jade was there."

"No," Beru denied sharply. "Don't you dare to blame yourself for what Anakin's made you."

Galen flinched at the former name of his master. The name rang in his ears like an ancient curse you were not allowed to voice.

"Where did he go? You said he went looking for me."

"Nal Hutta. He said you fought a Jedi on Nar Shaddaa," Owen replied from his armchair.

"Nar Shaddaa?" Galen felt like throwing up. Kota...

"He said you told him about some kind of a vision," Beru said. "He thought the Jedi was the reason you didn't come back."

"That kriffing stoopa," Galen swore. "I should've never told him the truth."

"It doesn't matter now," Beru consoled. "Can you feel him? Do you know if he's all right?"

Galen closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. "I don't know. I...I know something's wrong, but..."

Beru squeezed his hand again. "But he's alive?"

"Yes."

"Then you can find him? Can you talk to Vader?"

Galen shook his head again. "The Emperor is watching him. Unless he mentions Luke first it's not safe."

"What about Luke?" Owen spoke. "Can you bring him home?"

"I will," Galen swore. Luke had gone on some foolhardy mission because of him. It was his duty to bring his brother back.

"He was different, you know," Beru almost whispered. She did not want to say she had been scared of Luke, but the boy that came back... As time had gone on and as more guilt had consumed Luke, the more the boy she raised had changed. Luke had stopped seeing his friends. He solely focused on his training, leaving them for days at a time to do who knows what in the desert. She had barely known the boy that demanded to travel to Nal Hutta.

"When you didn't come back, we worried. He worried. It was all he could think of. He blamed himself for going with you."

"He said he would contact Erv once a week, but he never did," Owen said. It was unlike Luke to not keep his promises. "He's been gone for two months now."

"I'll find him," Galen swore, ready to make his leave. "I'll bring him home. I swear."

In the end, Starkiller never had a chance to speak with Lekauf in private. Juno's suspicious eyes followed him, and she would not board the Rogue Shadow without him. It was an inconvenience, but Lekauf would surely speak with Uncle Owen as soon as he was back in the privacy of his home. Starkiller would not be surprised if the Lieutenant elected to make the drive across the wastelands himself, too.

"So," Juno began as they neared the upper atmosphere. "Did you speak with Skywalker?"

"He wasn't there." He hadn't decided on what to tell Juno yet. He needed an excuse to go back to Nar Shaddaa.

"No recruiting him to the cause, then?" she said. She tried to act nonchalant, but the curiosity was almost too much. Starkiller and Skywalker where brothers, so surely Starkiller had wanted to warn the boy of Vader's betrayal.

"For now, no."

"We're still doing this then? Joining a lost cause to destroy Vader?"

"The Empire."

Juno laughed humourlessly. "Sure."

"I'm not joking. What better way to get to him than destroying his work?"

"Others have tried. What makes you think we'd make a difference? None of the resistance groups would stand a chance against the Empire."

"Yes..." Galen agreed under his breath. She was right of course. While there were easily hundreds if not thousands of groups that resisted the Empire, they were all independent from one another, at best working under one sector, though most focused on a single planet alone. On their own they were insignificant.

"But..." he began, chasing an idea as they passed through the exosphere and finally to the outer space. "If we could make them work together for a common cause..."

Juno's face lit up with sudden excitement. "We'd have an army!"

"An army that might stand a chance," Starkiller finished for her, same excitement catching into his tone.

"That's...that's actually a good idea," she said even to her own surprise. "But how would we convince anyone to do that? And who would lead them? You?"

A small smile passed the assassin's lips. "I was thinking more someone like you. We'd find people. We'd find good leaders. It could work."

Juno tapped the console with her fingers. "The question how still remains. How would we convince them to follow us and leave their homes and work together?"

"I don't know," Starkiller admitted. "We'll need allies. Powerful allies."

Perhaps Vader would have an idea. It was an order given by the Emperor, so it would not look suspicious for him to ask Darth Vader for guidance.

Silence fell between them as the ship left Tatooine's gravity well and Juno headed for the system's egress point. She still did not know where they would go and it did not seem like her companion knew either. She could understand his hatred for Vader. Her former commanding officer had destroyed her life by getting her tangled up in his scheme to overthrow the Emperor. Lord Vader had walked free while she had been imprisoned and branded a traitor. She had been told she would be executed, but instead she had found herself tortured and isolated. She had begged for death numerous times, she had pleaded for her innocence.

After waking up on Rogue Shadow, she had learnt from PROXY that the place she had been kept in was Darth Vader's very own, extremely secretive research facility. She shuddered at the thought. Had she been experimented on?

She could not pretend she knew the assassin, but he must have felt even more betrayed by what had happened than she did. On Felucia, PROXY had said Starkiller had been in Darth Vader's care since he was a child.

Only to be stabbed in the gut and then kept alive to be experimented on. No wonder he was suddenly ready to bring down the entire Empire to get to him. But how? The Empire was, as far as she was concerned, invincible. It had ruthlessly purged all those who stood in its way of order. She could not deny the Empire had brought peace after a devastating galactic scale civil war. Was it even right to act against it? No one would benefit from another war. Her father had sometimes spoken of the Clone Wars that only ended when the Jedi had failed in their plan to overthrow the Senate. It was rumoured the Jedi may have even been behind the war in the first place. Even today those who had escaped Order 66 were considered a danger. Starkiller was a proof of that.

But if even a single Jedi was considered such an immense threat...

"Maybe..." Juno began. "Maybe people would follow a Jedi."

Starkiller scoffed. "Where'd we get one to help us?"

"You. You could be a Jedi."

"I'm not a Jedi."

"Who'd know the difference?" Juno argued. "You have a lightsaber. You can levitate people with your mind."

"Any Jedi could immediately tell I'm not one of them. What I do might look similar to Jedi, but I was taught by Darth Vader. Trust me, there's an enormous difference."

"How different can it be?" From all the stories Juno had heard as a little girl to the horror stories told by her Imperial colleagues it seemed like what Starkiller did was not different. The only difference in her eyes was that he had been on their side. "You could become a Jedi."

Starkiller laughed dryly. "I wouldn't know how. It's not that simple. I'd need a teacher."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he finally seemed to grasp onto the thread of an idea he had been trying to catch since receiving his mission. Kota. Kota was still alive. Starkiller had little doubt the General would want to help him, nor did Starkiller actually want to recruit him as his Jedi Master. But Luke had gone to find him and Kota would no doubt have some contacts to anti-Imperial groups. He could torture the information out of the man if need be. Juno had just unknowingly given him the perfect excuse to go back to Nar Shaddaa.

The assassin's lips curled to a sinister smile behind his pilot's back.

"Actually... I might know where to find one."

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. If you have a moment, please let me know how you feel. I'd love to hear from you. :)

Also, should anyone be interested, you can find me on tumblr at sweetinsanewriter. I mainly just reblog relevant pic, but I'd be super happy to interact with you guys, too, if tumblr feels less intimidating.