Chapter 7

A few hours later in the evening a ceremony was held to honor Skywalker, Solo and Chewbacca, as the beings responsible for the Death Star's destruction. The three heroes entered the throne room to the sound of trumpets and on either side of the trio were rebel troopers gathered for the ceremony.

When the three heroes reached the end of the aisle they saw Luke's sister Leia standing together with Jedi Master Harris and Kenobi as well as General Dodonna waiting for them. All four smiled at the trio and Leia stepped forward.

She placed a medal around Solo's neck and Han responded with a wink and a smirk towards the princess.

Leia returned the smuggler's smile for a moment and then turned to her brother and placed the medal around his neck as well.

Quickly Master Harris reached her the third medal and reaching up quite a bit she placed a medal around Chewbacca as well.

After an astounding applause, Leia congratulated those assembled for their role in the destruction of the Death Star. "My friends," she said and after a short pause in which she sent her gaze about everyone in the hall she continued, "today we destroyed a weapon of terror and denied the Empire this terrible weapon. To reach that goal a lot of our friends gave their lives. Let's honor those not here now with a minute of silence."

She bowed her head and after a full minute she stepped back and the General took her place.

"My fellow gentlebeings, I thank you all as well. But even if we won this battle the Empire now knows our location and if we don't want to lose everything we have to hurry." Pointing on Master Harris he continued, "Thanks to Master Harris we now have three huge cruisers which will help us to evacuate this base, because now the Empire knows the location of this base. And we can bet on it that they will be back here quicker than we wish. So we start the evacuation now, my friends."

After Dodonna finished Master Harris stepped forward and started to speak, "First of let me congratulate and thank everyone here for their part in defending this base and in destroying the Death Star. This was an awesome piece of work I haven't seen in a long while. Now to a point I need to clear up. As the General mentioned, with the help of Master Kenobi and Master Tano, I brought three of my ships here. What we have to do now foremost is to crew those ships. A Jedi can fly those ships alone, but that is all he can do. In a fight those ships would be helpless with only a Jedi pilot. The Jedi flying one of those ships needs all his concentration to just fly one of those huge ships. For everything else he needs a crew, or the ships wouldn´t fire a single turbolaser in a battle."

After he let that sink in for a bit he continued, "With the help of General Dodonna and Princess Organa we have organized the needed transfers to crew the three ships. So I ask everyone that after you leave here to check your holonet account for your marching orders."

He bowed and then finished. "May the force be with us all and we will see each other again in the new base." With those words, he stepped back and the three Jedi Masters left the hall.

+T+

An hour after the ceremony in which Luke, Han and Chewbacca became awarded their medals Obi Wan had called Luke, Leia and Ahsoka to his current quarters.

He swallowed once to overcome his nervousness at looking at the grown-up children and the former Padawan of his old friend. "I told you that Vader killed your father," he said looking at Leia and Luke, then looking at Ahsoka he continued "and in your case your former friend and Master. From a certain point of view that is true, but not the whole truth." He finally admitted gaining a suspicious look from Ahsoka and a surprised one from Luke and Leia.

He took another deep breath and at seeing Alexander nod at him he continued and prayed to the force this did not blow up in their faces. "The whole truth is that Anakin Skywalker fell to the power of the Dark Side an in the end became the being we now all know as the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader."

"What?" Luke, Leia yelled at once deeply shocked and unable to comprehend what they just heard. Ahsoka just stared in horror at Obi-Wan before finally lashing out.

"That can't be. Anakin would never fall to the Dark Side and do the things Vader has done, Ahsoka insisted. "He wouldn't," she said with tears in her eyes, not yet willing to believe.

Obi Wan looked at the three for a minute and then continued, "Sadly it is the truth Ahsoka. The Jedi order was blind and had made many errors in the Clone Wars, not least was their distrust of Anakin which only aided Palpatine in seducing him to the dark side. The man had pretended to be Anakin's friend since the end of the Battle of Naboo, he had great influence over Anakin from the beginning and it only grew and sadly we failed to see it as the reason for some of Anakin's more arrogant traits and his lack of true belief in the code" he explained with a sigh. "The man manipulated us all into the Clone Wars without anyone realizes he was playing both sides, he also ensured the Jedi were stretched thin leading Clone Armies all over the galaxy unaware they were pre-programmed to kill us" he stated. "He used Anakin's fears over losing Padme to ensure Anakin turned, without me or you there to counter Palpatine's influence he was doomed Ahsoka and I failed to sense the danger he was in when I left to lead the attack on Grievous" he told his friend's former student and friend and hoped she would except his words as truth.

Ahsoka looked away trying to process the rather blunt words Obi-Wan had used to describe what happened to Anakin, she had always known there was a special connection between her friend and Padme and even suspected Anakin had broken the code not that he would have been the first to do so as she had known a few Jedi who had found lovers during the war. Time and again during the war they had saved one another's lives or ended up helping one another when they needed help during missions they undertook alone, but to hear that the fear of losing Padme had helped turn Anakin hurt her.

"Why was his fear of losing Padme such a factor in his descent to the dark side?" she inquired unaware of how Luke and Leia tried to follow the conversation still in shock at the revelation their father had become Darth Vader.

"Ten years before the Clone Wars Anakin lost his Mother on Tatooine, he had terrible visions of her in agony and while he tried to be a strong Jedi and push them aside and focus on the mission of protecting Padme they eventually went there to try and save her," Obi-Wan answered with another sigh. "He met his half-brother Owen and his wife Beru as well as his stepfather Clegg Lars, while leaving Padme with them he went out to find his mother and located her as a prisoner of the Sand People who had tortured her badly hence Anakin's visions and she died only minutes after he freed her and she realized who he was and this was his first brush with the dark side and he ended up massacring he entire village as was told to me by the force ghost of Qui-Gon-Jinn my original teacher and the man most directly responsible for bringing Anakin to everyone's attention due to his belief that he was the chosen one," he explained deciding not to leave anything out, as keeping secrets was only hurting his standing with these three. "Padme knew about this as he had confessed to her later after bring his mother's body back for burial. The failure to save her marked him deeply and when he began to have visions of Padme dying in childbirth it sparked his fear of losing those he loved again," he went on wishing he had paid closer attention to his own feelings back then as he may have sensed his friend's turmoil and may have been able to help him. "Sadly, Yoda's advice of letting go of his attachments and learning to accept death only made things worse, and this is how Palpatine ensnared him. He gave him hope on how to save her which of course was a lie, as I do not believe for a second she was ever in danger I think the visions were sent to him by Palpatine to do exactly what they did, awaken his fear so he could be more easily manipulated," he finished.

Leia blinked trying to wrap her mind around the rather painful tale of the death of a grandmother she had never known and would never know and how it had twisted her father up. Leaving him vulnerable later on in time to a dark fear of losing his wife and the mother to his children. She felt a war ignite inside her between sympathy and anger towards her father, because no matter the pain, anger and fear he must have felt, none of it gave him the right to commit mass murder and genocide as Vader had done, no as he had done, now that she knew they were one and the same. She glanced at her brother and noted the confused and uncertain look Luke wore, and yet somehow, she sensed a great swell of pity from her twin towards their father and she frowned concerned, he had not yet fully come to realize the full truth that Vader and Anakin Skywalker were one and the same and that they had committed terrible deeds, not least of which was taking part in the destruction of Alderaan.

Ahsoka stared at Obi-Wan as she digested his words and felt the pain Anakin must have felt at losing his mother only minutes after saving her, of the fear that must have dogged him since that moment and she felt her hatred of Palpatine increase. She would never call him Emperor for he was nothing more in her mind than a murderer, a savage who had caused millions of deaths for his own advantage. That he had successfully manipulated and twisted her friend and Master into a monster made her thirst for revenge, but she forced that feeling down, it wouldn't help her right now.

"Why is he in that suit, an attempt to hide his identity?" she inquired trying to keep control of herself.

"No, he needs it just to survive Ahsoka, because I almost killed him on Mustafar when Yoda and I tried to stop the Sith assuming control of the Galaxy," Obi-Wan admitted and tried to block out the images of that fateful duel. "It was a bitter fight, but at the end I ended up on the high ground and I warned him and all but begged him not to try and jump over me, but he was consumed with power and arrogance and he tried it and I was forced to defend myself and force help me I removed his legs and his other arm leaving him a shell of his former self and he then caught fire from the nearby lava," he forced himself to say and did not miss the look of rage that passed over Ahsoka's face as he admitted the damage he had caused his former friend. "He should have died, the fire caused extensive damage to his body, but somehow Palpatine was able to save him and grafted artificial legs and an arm to him and then put him in that suit which helps sustain his life," he informed them. "That he survived is a danger to the galaxy and yet he is weakened and far from his best thanks to the damage he took in that fight, more than likely had he not been so badly injured he would have killed Palpatine by now and assumed control on his own as he wanted to do before he lashed out at Padme when she refused to go along with his new path," he said with a painful sigh.

Ahsoka had to walk away from Obi-Wan out of fear she might hurt the old man as her anger at the damage Anakin must have taken, to be confined to a life sustaining suit for the rest of his life hit her. A part of her knew Obi-Wan had no choice, it was kill or be killed back then and he would have taken no pleasure from being the one forced to fight his friend and brother to the death. But another part of her wanted to lash out at the injustice of it all. Anakin had been one of the strongest Jedi ever, his potential in the future unlimited and that she believed had been why the Council had been so wary of him and even her to a point. Being trained by Anakin an unorthodox Jedi at the best of times must have unnerved them, hence them being so ready to judge her guilty when she was framed. Leia tried to stop feeling any kind of sympathy for her father for what he had endured. He had deserved the punishment he had been handed for betraying his friends his family and in the end the entire galaxy. He had turned on the Jedi who trusted him, turned on his own wife, pregnant with his children and for what? Power and what good had it done him? It confined him to a life sustaining suit, never again to feel the wind or any other feeling on his skin. No, she couldn't feel sympathy for him, no matter whatever good he had done before his downfall he had wiped it all out with his actions since.

Luke winced learning it was his mentor who had confined his father into the suit Vader wore, a part of him knew he probably deserved it and it had limited the destruction he could cause, but another softer side of him who had always wished to know his father felt nothing but pity and he knew Leia would not be receptive to this fact. She had more reason than him to hate and despise Vader, no matter that he also happened to be their father, in fact he doubted she had fully accepted that fact or ever could, not that he blamed her.

Obi-Wan left them to their thoughts watching the different emotions playing over their faces; he worried when he noted the anger and rage briefly flash over Ahsoka's face, but breathed easier when she seemed to regain control of herself. Perhaps Harris was correct about making Ahsoka a Master, it seemed she had come a long way from the young girl he had known and he wondered what Yoda would think of all this.

"I think General you better start from the beginning and tell us just how the war ended and our father ended up a Sith," Leia ordered finally. "Telling us bits and pieces isn't helping any of us," she added to which Luke and Ahsoka nodded in agreement.

"Very well Princess, I will start with the battle for Corusant," Obi-Wan agreed and began his tale hoping with the whole story they would accept the truth that was Darth Vader.

+T+

As Obi Wan began telling Leia and Luke the story of their father Alexander quietly left the room and began to wander through the base which had fallen into a hectic chaos. Here and there he helped with lifting a crate. He just hoped that they could finish the evacuation before Vader returned with a fleet.

Finally, his feet or the force led him to the young Miraluka woman he saw before in the cantina of the base. He smiled at the young woman and spoke. "Hi, I'm Alexander. I'm sorry to interrupt your work, but I need to speak with you for a moment."

The young woman turned to him and even without having eyes he felt her gaze fall on him. "Master Harris, it is an honor to meet you I'm Captain Xofuuh. How am I to any interest to Jedi Master Harris?" she asked with surprise in her tone at being spoken to by the Jedi Master. "Are you really Jedi Master Alexander Harris? How can that be? The legends of my people tell a lot of stories about you and Master Revan. Like you saved our homeworld from destruction through the Sith Emperor."

Starring a bit into empty space and being lost in the past Xander took a few moments before he answered, "Yes that was me together with Revan, but that was literally ages ago and today we fight another war. One we can't afford to lose, again. That is why I came to you as a Miraluka you have a natural access to the force. Your race learned to use it so see with it like other beings use their eyes to see. So my question to you is: Do you want to make more of your access to the force? If you do Obi Wan and I are willing to teach you to become a member of the new Jedi order. Before you answer, take your time and think about it. It won't be easy, but it will be well worth it. I will come back to you as soon as we have reached our new base."

Before the young Captain could say anything in reply he smiled and nodded at her. "Have a quite flight captain." He then turned around and started to wander around the base a bit longer, giving everyone he saw a small inspection. He was surprised how many of the people around actually still had the potential to learn at least a bit about the force. After another hour, he made his way to the last meeting before they all would leave this world.

+T+

(Command room of the Rebel Alliance, Yavin Moon)

It seems like his wandering around the old temple took him a bit longer than he thought because it seemed like he was the last to enter the room. Just as the door closed automatically behind him General Dodona looked into his direction and said: "Master Harris, good that you are here it seems like we have a small problem with the location we wanted to evacuate to."

"How so?" Xander asked curios about what had happened.

Leia still reeling from Obo-Wan's tale focused solely on the business at hand so she wouldn't have to think of the hard truths she had just learned pressed a button on the console and the holo of a planet appeared above it.

"Hoth?" Xander asked, shuddering even now as he remembered the damn cold on that planet.

Dodona nodded and said, "Yes, one of our cells rebuild an old base they had found on that planet and so we had Hoth prepared as an alternative base to Yavin. Sadly, our base there and all the people on it is gone. One of our scouts just returned and reported that just has he left hyperspace near Hoth he sensors showed him to Imperial Star Destroyers would just opened with salvos of turbo laser shots which obliterated everything on the ground. According to his sensors it was the location of our base that was bombarded."

Dodona voice broke a bit as he thought about all the people they have lost on Hoth and so Leia took over for him. "And now we have to find a new suitable location to evacuate to, because the Empire won't take much longer to return here," she said.

Xander quickly went through all the places he knew and then said with a grin. "There is an old base I and some of my friends used ages ago. I left droids there for the upkeep so it should be in relative good condition.

"That sounds good," Leia said as enthusiastically as she could. "Where is it?"

"The world is called Odessen it is a world with large oceans and mountainous continents. It has a mild climate and lot of interesting wildlife. It is also nicely balanced in the Force. I really liked the time I spent there and it is located in the Unknown Regions. I will give you coordinates to a meeting point to make sure that there is no mole in this group who will betray us to the Empire. After we all arrived at this location we will continue to Odessen."

"A mole?" General Dodona asked.

"Of course, the empire would be stupid if it never tried to infiltrate your group to gather information. So we should make sure," Xander replied.

The General nodded as he replied. "That makes sense. We should be careful. After we destroyed the Death Star here we already saw on Hoth how the reply of the Empire will look like and we don't need this at the moment. So your safe haven it will be."

Leia nodded in agreement and added. "OK we should hurry to the ships now."

"Oh… one more thing before we leave. General, could you please change the orders of those five people on the list so that they will join me on the Methos?" Xander asked and transmitted the small list to the General's datapad.

"Of course," the General nodded "Any particular reason why?" he added.

Xander smiled and replied, "I found those five beings while I was wandering around the base. They all have the potential to touch the force and I would like to train them in its use."

"I'll make sure they get their new orders. A few more Jedi would be a great boon to the alliance," Dodona said. "I will see you again at the meeting point," he added and the quickly left the room.

Leia and Xander quickly left the room and hurried to Xander's shuttle so that they could take off an board the Methos.

+T+

(On board the Methos)

Xander landed the shuttle carefully in one of the hangers and Leia and he left the shuttle.

As they stepped out of the airlock and into the hangar Leia saw a group of people. Some she only knew from seeing around the base whilst the others were her brother Luke and the Jedi Ahsoka and Obi-Wan.

She stood still for a moment to muster the group and then hurried to keep up with Master Harris who hadn't stopped. Luke threw here the typical Farm boy smile he always had.

Master Harris stopped a few steps before the group and said, "For those who don't know me yet, I'm Jedi Master Alexander Harris and I welcome you all onto the battlecruiser Methos." Throwing his gaze over the five people from his list he continued. "You five probably wonder why General Dodona ordered you to join me here?"

As four of the five nodded, he continued. "As Captain Xofuuh already suspects I asked for you five people, because while I wandered around the base I sensed that you five all have the potential to use the force. And so, I wanted to offer all of you to be trained as Jedi and to become our first new batch of Padawans. For now, I only ask you five to think about it. You have time to decide until we reach our new base. If you have questions in the meantime please write them down. We will answer them as soon as we can. For now, Master Ashoka, Kenobi and I will be busy to fly my three cruisers and Master Kenobi and Ashoka will now depart for the Duncan and Connor."

Captain Xofuuh sent him a small smile as she asked, "Where can we bunk until then?"

Xander pointed to a silver protocol droid and said, "Just ask C2X1 over there. He will show your group the way. Dismissed for now."

After the group left the hangar he nodded to Luke and Leia. "Luke? Will you please fly with Obi Wan over to the Duncan there you can learn from him how to fly the ship. Leia? I would ask you to join me."

Leia and Luke both nodded and so Luke and Obi Wan left on their shuttle, soon followed by Ahsoka in an X-Wing on her way to the Connor.

Xander and Leia hurried to the bridge to prepare for leaving the system.

Within the space of an hour the Rebel fleet fled the system just minutes before the arrival of three Imperial Star Destroyers including the Super Star Destroyer belonging to Darth Vader himself.

+T+

Darth Vader stood on the bridge of his personal ship the Super Star Destroyer Executor as it and two other Star Destroyers, the Avenger and the Conquest, came out of hyper speed into the orbit of Yavin. He had come as fast as he could, hoping to catch the Rebels especially the one responsible for the destruction of the Death Star before they could flee. He just hoped he was in time because he knew the Emperor wouldn't be pleased by his failure if they had already fled. He was in enough trouble with his Master for failing to stop his Master's ultimate weapon from being destroyed.

"We've are in orbit of Yavin Lord Vader," Captain Esker stated.

"Very good Captain, scan the system for the Rebels especially the moon and then report to me when you have found them," Vader ordered even as he reached out with the force to try and find the one who had destroyed the Death Star, but he found nothing after a few minutes of searching.

"My Lord, I am afraid the system is dead of any Rebel activity," Captain Esker reported ten minutes later confirming his own conclusion. "There are also no signs of where they have fled too," he added.

"Very well Captain, send out probe droids to every system you can find and send Admiral Ozzel to my quarters when he finally returns to the bridge," Vader ordered.

"Yes my Lord," Captain Esker replied with a bow before watching the Sith Lord depart and knew he was lucky to be alive. "Release the probe droids and someone find the Admiral. Lord Vader wishes to see him," he commanded turning back to his crew who quickly snapped into action.

Additional Disclaimer:

The Eternal Empire and Odessen are out of The Old Republic and belongs to Bioware/EA not me.

Odessen was a planet located in the Unknown Regions with a strong connection to the Force. A world with significant oceans and mountainous continents, Odessen had a mild climate and a variety of native wildlife among its forested terrain

Persons:

Jedi Master Alexander "Xander" Harris, male Human
Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, male Human

Jedi Master Ahsoka Tano, female Togruta

Luke Skywalker, Rebel Pilot and Padawan, male Human

Leia Skywalker, Rebel Leader and Padawan male Human

Captain Xofuuh, Rebel Pilot and potential Padawan, female Miraluka

General Dodona, Rebel General

Han Solo, Smuggler, male Human

Chewbacca, Smuggler/Bodyguard male Wookie

C2N2 – golden Protocoldroid on Odessen

2V-R8 – silver Protocol droid on Odessen.

HK-51 – Assassin droid based on HK-47 on Odessen

HK-55 – Bodyguard droid on Odessen

Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, male Human/Cyborg

Name of Xander's ships:

Methos, modified Mon Calamari Cruiser

Duncan, modified Mon Calamari Cruiser

Connor, modified Mon Calamari Cruiser