"People are not born heroes or villains; they're created by the people around them." - Chris Colfer

-Starkiller-

-Rogue Shadow-

Starkiller was not a man accustomed to outbursts of emotion, in fact, he considered himself downright stoic, but as they neared the dormant Executor, the lightsaber of Shaak Ti hanging from his belt, it took every ounce of self-control he had not to jump up, scream his victory to the stars, and perhaps do a little dance. Instead, he contented himself to lean back, relax, and let a fraction of his glee show in the curve of his lips.

He had earned it. The woman had been a tough fight, his toughest thus far, and his body ached. It was a good ache. He would be more surprised if his body didn't ache. It would have been a sign that he was dreaming or worse, dead. The aching meant he was alive. It was the proverbial 'you should see the other guy' ache.

Starkiller closed his eyes and sighed. "Well, you're in a good mood." Juno Eclipse reflected cheerfully. She continued hitting keys and talked while she worked. "Care to share with the rest of us peasants?"

"Hn." He grunted. "I doubt one, such as yourself, would understand the complexity of the details going into a nobles life. Be content with your lowly status."

"Yes, master. Remind me to kiss your feet." She responded sarcastically.

"I would be more than happy to-"

"I bet you would, PROXY, but I'd rather you not." Starkiller said. "Nah, but really. The mission was a succe-"

"Son of a-" His pilot suddenly cursed. Starkiller sat up and looked around attentively.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm getting replies that I'm in classified space and to depart." She reported. "I'm trying to explain back that I know what I'm doing here..."

Starkiller furrowed his brows in thought. They had been through this plenty of times. Every mission, they depart, they return, they depart, then they return, and the cycle continued. What made this different? Vader was expecting him...

He hadn't received a notification from Vader, through PROXY, that there was to be any change. So he had to assume there wouldn't be. It was a dumb officer. Even if they didn't know about Starkiller, they should know better at this point. "No, leave them be." He ordered. "Go in, drop me off, and if someone gives you trouble, tell them they can talk to Vader. Must be a new security officer."

The Executor was a ship crawling with mechanics. Starkiller kept himself isolated to prevent witnesses, but there were... understandings with the staff that there was a special agent of some kind on the ship, as well as frequent visits from Vader, and to keep their noses out of it. If this new guy was giving him trouble, Vader would have his head. Starkiller had a bad feeling though. This had never happened before.

"Alright, settling down." She confirmed.

The ship glided gently into dock and Starkiller glanced out. "Well, they aren't giving us anymore trouble, at least." She said optimistically.

"Hn." Starkiller scanned the area anyway. It was lifeless, as usual. So why did he feel on edge?

"I'm going." Starkiller hit the door switch and it lowered for him. "I'll let you know if we need to head back out."

"Oh, yes! I'll keep the engine nice and toasty!" He heard Juno reply as he descended. He rolled his eyes.

The last few... weeks with her had been interesting to say the least. She had survived the longest of all his pilots, being longer than one mission to be precise, now going into the fourth mission, and was a peculiar specimen of wit and obedience.

On one hand, she knew when to do as she was told. Orders were orders. She stayed out of the way and did nothing more than nod.

On the other hand, she was... unruly. Starkiller would go even so far as to say disrespectful with constantly talking back, but her actions proved to be obedient even when her mouth was not. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Human nature was not his expertise. She was an interesting conversationalist in a way that Darth Vader wouldn't appreciate and PROXY just lacked. Starkiller would miss her if Vader deemed her unfit or knowing too much. None of his other pilots ever said anything engaging. Where would he get a pilot that was half-way interesting to talk to?

Starkiller made his way through the Executor, and periodic noises put him on edge. He kept his hand glued to his lightsaber and listened attentively. This part of the dreadnaught was supposed to be dormant of all life, save three, but the sound of boots in the distance gave him the impression the vessel had taken up new residence. The boots kept at a perfect pace and distance with his own... He was being followed carefully.

Starkiller turned the corner and waited a solid thirty seconds before springing out, lightsaber at the ready to fight...

no one.

Starkiller looked around carefully. There was no one. He reached out with the Force. He felt Juno, patiently waiting and keeping herself occupied. He felt his master waiting, growing impatient. There was no one else.

'My nerves are getting to me...' He scolded himself. He turned off his lightsaber and entered the observatory where Lord Vader awaited.

Vader was an impressive sight to behold. A wide-shouldered man covered in black armor, machinery, and a powerful and sinister Dark Side presence that could blot out suns. To anyone who didn't know him, he was scary, to anyone who did, he was terrifying. Knowing him didn't make it any better, and Starkiller figured he knew his master pretty well.

For fourteen years (Starkiller was seventeen) he had been raised by Vader. He was an orphan rescued from the ashes of the battle of Kashyyyk. Starkiller never once confused his relationship has being remotely family-like. If anything, he was raised in a life-debt to be Vader's tool and weapon. He was Vader's willing slave.

And why shouldn't he be? He would be dead were it not for Vader. He wouldn't have the power to destroy evil. He would be nothing but a skeleton on Kashyyyk giving himself to roses and weeds.

For fourteen years he had trained and pushed through physical and psychological trauma to get where he was now. At seventeen his progress had placed him on par with Jedi Masters twice, three times, or even four times his own age! His latest prize was a testament to that.

Starkiller stopped at exactly ten steps behind Vader, lowered himself on one knee, and presented the lightsaber of Shaak Ti. Without a word or utterance, the lightsaber flew through the air into Vader's outstretched hand. Vader glanced it over.

"Stand here. Tell me what you see." Vader said.

Starkiller rose to his feet and placed himself by his master. He looked out and saw a number of assault-class vessels come out of Hyperspace and take up position around the Executor. "A fleet. The 501st?" The 501st were Vader's select army all the way back to the clone wars.

"The Emperor's fleet." Vader elaborated.

The Emperor... Starkiller shook with anticipation, his aching body forgotten. This was why he had been raised. This was why he had been trained. Vader was the Emperor's heir, and by the Sith Code, that meant succession by murder. Starkiller final purpose, the reason he made himself stronger and meditated each day was for this day. The day he would stand by his master, put down the old man, and have a new Empire.

Naturally Vader might suspect that Starkiller would betray him in turn one day, but Starkiller did not imagine that in his dreams nor place it among his desires. He was alive. He was able to breathe each day because of Lord Vader. It was not his place to replace his master, ever. It was his place to be his master's will.

Starkiller looked to his master in awe and could barely contain his readiness for the upcoming fight. "You lured the Emperor to us? Excellent. When do we strike?"

"I did not summon him..." Vader replied.

... Starkiller eyed him briefly, curiously. If Vader didn't summon the Emperor... then how?

A door opened behind them, Starkiller, cut off guard, turned to appraise the intruder, and gasped as something sizzling and burning pierced his spine and exited his stomach. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move. He lost all feeling in his lower body and would have fallen were it not for a gloved hand grabbing him by the throat. "His spies followed you here." A menacing voice whispered in his ear.

The lightsaber exited out his back, causing more damage along the way, and Vader dropped him on the floor. Starkiller cringed in agony and curled briefly in a ball in an instinctual effort to protect himself. Feeling slowly returned to his legs and he looked up into the oppressive mask of Vader looking back down on him like he was some kind of... of enemy!

Starkiller felt he was dreaming. This... all those years... it just couldn't be happening! This had to be a dream.

Vader turned his attention to a figure that entered the room and bowed his head, "What is thy bidding, my master?"

Every word pierced his heart. Why was Vader acting submissive? He was Vader! The throne was his rightful place!... right?

"You have forgotten your place, Lord Vader!" The old, wrinkly man snarled. "By taking this... boy... as an apprentice..." He lowered his voice to a whisper that actually sounded hurt. "You have betrayed me... Now... you will kill him or I will kill you BOTH!"

No! Starkiller struggled to his feet, even as he clutched his stomach in vain effort to contain his blood seeping through his fingers. He coughed and landed on a knee, this was as far as he could get. He didn't want to die. He didn't want his master... his... father... to die. They could get through this! "Master!" Starkiller cried desperately, "We can defeat him! Together!"

Even though Starkiller could barely stand, he was willing to do whatever it took to get his master victory! Even just him tackling the old man, pinning him down with what strength he had, and dying to bring Vader victory... that would be enough. His life was for Vader! That had to amount to something!

Vader briefly looked down on him, and he felt hope enter him. Starkiller no longer had any doubts he was going to die today, being in the middle of a feud between two powerful Sith Lords, but maybe, just maybe, his death would mean something.

"Do it now, Lord Vader! Strike him down and prove your loyalty to me!" The Emperor demanded.

Loyalty! As if! The Emperor knew nothing of loyalty! Vader was not loyal to him! Starkiller knew what real loyalty meant. Loyalty was his very life! Starkiller looked up at Vader, ready for the briefest signal to begin fighting.

But the signal never came. Vader made up his mind, and with a sweep of his hand, sent the almost-crippled Starkiller flying across the room into the pipes jutting out of the wall. Starkiller felt himself hang limply in the air, little more than a useless, puppet on a string. He felt tears come to his eyes as he realized what he meant to Vader. His life. His death. His apprenticeship. His loyalty. His dreams. His achievements.

It meant... nothing...

Again and again Vader threw him around the room into various objects. Starkiller lost track and closed his eyes, unable, and unwilling, to fight against the power surrounding him. He was a ragdoll. He felt his bones break on impact, and his body went limp, further breaking as he was tossed back and forth and back and forth at a velocity his broken body was not meant to handle. His spine popped, his ribs broke, his arms limp, his legs useless, blood seeping from his head and pouring from his stomach... He was a broken servant. All while the tyrant of an old man laughed and mocked him and jeered him in his final moments.

A final throw whisked him through the air, and Starkiller briefly saw the mask of his master... his former master, just before he impacted glass hard enough to be thrown out. It was thick glass too. So he had little doubt a lot of his bones fractured on impact.

Air escaped his lungs and stomach. The air pressure made him feel like his head and eyes were going to explode. He had an immediate migraine that only grew worse with each second, and the last thing he saw before he thrashed around madly for air was his former master not even giving him the honor of watching him die... His master's back was turned to him both literally... and figuratively.

He had been betrayed.

-Juno Eclipse-

-Rogue Shadow-

Juno, for the five millionth time, checked all systems. Green, green, green, with a shade of dusty-green. all green. As... usual. The ship was still at max fuel, the hyperdrive was cooled, and the radar was gently beeping with no nearby contacts.

Sometimes she really hated her job.

So she passed the time by pulling out a holobook and retiring herself to glancing around briefly every few paragraphs. She didn't dare do it while actually on a mission, that was both unprofessional and caused unnecessary distraction, but here? She was allowed a brief break as far as she was concerned. Not like she had anything more to do. She didn't have an office or apartment on the Executor. This ship was her life right now.

A sudden series of beeps drew her attention and she glanced at the radar. Five dots appeared on the far edge of her sensors, approaching fast.

She dropped her holonovel to the side and turned off all power except to the radar and scanner. Lights dimmed and soon the only lights in the room were from her console and holopad. Until she had an idea what she was dealing with, better to lay low. Starkiller wasn't back yet and this place was supposed to be top secret. "PROXY! We have incoming! I'm going to do a passive scan to see what we're looking at!"

"There should not be any ships in the system, this is restricted space." It replied from where it stood in the back.

"I know, that's what has me worried..." She watched fearfully as the scanner slowly, ever so slowly, went through its scanning and revealed some information she could use. "All IFF's are marked as Imperial vessels!"

Now... Juno was an Imperial pilot. She was raised to see the order and law as absolute. The Empire and its army created peace by stamping out terrorists, but the sight of the rapidly approaching ships set her on edge. There were not supposed to be ANY in this area! Starkiller was a secret, both to the Empire and rivals, and as such should be kept that way! Starkiller was top-secret, beyond top-secret even! So far as she knew, only two living people knew of Starkiller's existence.

So having a whole bunch of friendlies pop out of Hyperspace and approach them, did not feel friendly to her.

Movement on the edge of her vision drew her attention to a bunch of rapidly approaching storm troopers across all parts of the hanger. She was surrounded and hadn't even realize it. They were armed and aiming at her. "Come out of the ship!" They demanded. "Put your hands in the air and leave, slowly!"

What the hell?!

"PROXY? Any ideas what's going on?!" She barked. They had to be after the wrong ship! She hadn't done anything wrong! All she was doing was reading a damn holobook and relaxing while waiting for her charge to return!

"They appear to be engaging in hostilities."

"NO SHIT! WHY?!"

The droid looked at her a long moment. "I do believe they are... silencing us. This fleet's IFF belongs to the Emperor himself."

"No... nononononono!" She looked out in horror at the still-approaching storm troopers. They were walking slowly now, anticipating that she wasn't being cooperative. "Th-this can't be happening! We haven't DONE anything!"

"I disagree. We have done much. We have played a role in a top-secret-"

"I get it PROXY! We know too much!"

"Open up in there!" The storm troopers knocked on the ship door, startling them both.

"What do we do?" She demanded PROXY even as her mind raced. There were really only two options. Surrender or run. She was not going to fight. If they surrendered... they were screwed. The Emperor would silence them, meaning execute, for having knowledge of something far above her paygrade. If she ran... they would be criminals...

"Running would be the most viable option." PROXY concluded.

"How do you figure?"

"Vader and the Emperor are not on... the best of terms, shall we say. The Emperor can only be here for one of two reasons, Vader or Starkiller, and in either case, we are inheritantly enemies of the Emperor."

"What?!" She demanded. Since when did working for Starkiller make her an enemy of the Empire?! A flare erupted on the door where the storm troopers had resorted to starting to cut in.

"I do believe Vader can vouch for us if we run and return to Starkiller's side. But for now, the most opportune option is to evade being executed."

Juno glanced hurriedly at the cutter continuing to create a door out of her door, and the controls. Without enough time to consider it more, she went with doing what she could. "Screw it..." She jumped back into her seat and hit the controls as fast, and hard, as she could. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she lifted the ship off the hanger floor as soon as she felt the rumble of the engine.

They flew out the Executor hanger. The distant Imperial assault ships drew ever nearer. Thankfully, they were not dreadnaught. Dreadnaughts could emit a field that stopped Hyperspace travel.

"You better be right about this PROXY..."

"You will find I am rarely wrong, Mrs. Juno. Now may I suggest we- fly over there!" It suddenly pointed in another direction to her right.

"PROXY! What are you-" Juno looked in the direction the droid was pointing in and saw that the bridge of the Executor had its glass blown out. "Damn, what happened there?"

"Go there now!"

"We need to get out of here!"

"Master Starkiller is there!"

... It took her a second or two to process that. "What?!"

"Master Starkiller is in space! Rescue and then fleeing is now looking to be a very good option!"

Over the course of their brief conversation, they neared the glass in space and Juno realized one of the shapes was indeed a living person. "Oh, my God! PROXY, take the controls!" She jumped out of her seat and scrambled through the cabinets for an oxygen mask. "Guide us so the door is right next to him after I open it!"

She strapped the mask on and took a deep breathe of man-made oxygen. It was crisp and tasteless and slightly nauseating, but the alternative would be a lot worse. She hit the door switch, and all oxygen, and a fair number of objects, flew out the door scattering the glass further. She heard her heartbeat in her ears and all other sound ceased in the zero-oxygen atmosphere.

PROXY was not a crack pilot, but it was able to gently push them right up to Starkiller. Juno reached out, grabbed his feet, pulled him in, and immediately shut the door. The room depressurized and Juno was able to hear again something besides her own breathing and heartbeat.

Starkiller's lips were deathly blue and his chest wasn't expanding. "He's not breathing!" She struggled to get the oxygen mask on his face and started pumping his chest. The oxygen mask would force air into him without her having to take her hands off his heart to give him mouth to mouth.

"May I suggest we remember the Empire will be on us in a matter of seconds? Fighters are incoming!"

"Then you do it! I'm a bit busy here!"

"Where shall I enter coordinates into the navcomputer?"

"I don't care! Anywhere but here!"

"Anywhere but here! Got it!" PROXY all but saluted as it ran its mechanic fingers over the controls. "Hang on."

Juno stopped pumping Starkiller's chest long enough to grab both him and something nearby. The ship briefly shook as it entered Hyperspace and she immediately returned to doing CPR. A few seconds later he gasped for air, and Juno was startled enough to fall back. Starkiller didn't open his eyes, but he was breathing. Juno tenderly removed the mask from his face and let him breathe the ship's cold air. Juno put a hand to her forehead to wipe away the sudden perspiration and realized she was shaking and gently crying. She wiped her tears and struggled to control her breathing.

The last minute had been... shattering. One minute she was a loyal servant of the Empire. The next... she was on the run struggling to keep alive a man her life now depended on. She leaned back against the bulkhead, put her head against her knees, and struggled to catch up with what had just happened.

"Mrs. Juno. May I suggest we find a nearby hospital pending us doing emergency medical treatment?"

"Why?" She asked. She was fine and Starkiller was breathing again.

"Master Starkiller is dying."

She looked up to see what it meant and gasped. She hadn't taken the effort to see how badly hurt Starkiller was... but now... it was a wonder he was alive. He was covered in inflammation, deep bruises reminiscent of shattered bones, there was a small hole through his stomach, and he was bleeding out of his head and stomach, and judging from one of the deep bruises on his face and forehead, he might very well have a major concussion.

"Yeah, let's... let's do that." She could do some bandaging and make stilts to straighten his arms and legs in, as they were all bent unnaturally, but that was the extent of what she could do here. They would need a good medical droid or something.

Along with their contents of medical supplies was medifoam, medigel, rags, and she could make stilts out of leather and piping. The medifoam, once sprayed into his stomach wound, expanded and closed it off. The medigel seeped into his skin to reduce bruising and close off the smaller cuts and swelling. The rags were drenched in cold faucet water and applied to his head, while the stilts were wrapped around his limbs tightly with leather. Under the circumstances it was the best she could do.

Note: Welcome to a new fiction I am working on. With my main focus being on the 'In the Path of Revan' series, then this story will be put on the back pedal.Hopefully I won't have to put this story into my personal archives to get back to, but we shall see. I like the idea of exploring Starkiller from a different angle. My 'In the path of Revan' has a small gathering, so I feel obligated to writing that more anyway.

Here is a factoid incase no one knew this.

The name Starkiller is based on a character from The Knights of the Old Republic. A Mandalorian you fight in the gladiator arena named "Bendak Starkiller".

Betcha didn't know that.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, so no sue!

Remember to Review. I want to know what you think and how the chapter is to you. Is it good? Is it bad? Anything I need to know? Any ideas or things you want to see in the future?.