Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 39.

Hermione looked at the woman. "Incarcerous!" she shouted, and ropes coiled out of her wand, binding her.

"That's impossible," the woman said.

"Obviously not," Hermione replied. "Accio!" The woman's lightsaber flew into her hand.

"You think it's that easy?" Hermione felt power come from that woman as she ripped the ropes binding her apart. A blaster lying on the floor was hurled through the air. The woman caught it.

"Protego!" Hermione shouted, blocking the bolt. "Calorio!" The woman tossed aside the hot gun, wincing in pain. Then she jumped at Hermione, who barely managed to get out of the way. The woman did hit her, however, knocking her down.

"Stupefy!" Hermione yelled. The woman was too quick, and evaded the blast. Hermione stood up, and aimed to cast another spell, but was hit in the back with a heavy crate. She stumbled, nearly dropping her wand.

"Locomotor Mortis!" She tried the Leg-Locker Curse. The woman evaded it by leaping upwards, and then a small rock slammed into Hermione's hand. She yelped, releasing the wand. She jumped for it, but the woman landed next to her and slammed her down. She then kicked the wand away.

"Silly little girl," the woman snarled and grabbed for the lightsaber. Hermione held on to the weapon with all her strength while trying to reach the wand with her other hand. But it was too far.

Hermione concentrated on her wand, trying to make it move by itself. She had seen Luke--and Harry, when he was fighting the red-headed woman--do it. She also kicked the woman on top of her, but she dodged it. At the same time, Hermione lost the grip on the lightsaber. The woman yelled triumphantly and ignited the blade.

Just as Hermione successfully summoned her wand. "Stupefy!" she yelled, forcing the woman to dodge once again. Getting back to her feet, Hermione saw the furious woman practically flying at her, glowing blade poised to kill.

"Impedimenta!" she shouted, stopping the woman in mid-air. The woman landed on her feet and extended her hand towards her. Hermione was thrown back.

"Protego!" she said, getting free. Then seeing the woman jumping again, she headed back to the corridor. "Impedimenta!" She stopped the woman's second attempt to spear her with the lightsaber. "Incendio!" She created a fire, blocking the hallway into which she retreated.

Hermione didn't hear anything, which meant she was not being followed. That makes no sense, she thought. The woman should have been able to easily jump either over or even through the fire quickly enough not to be harmed.

As she stepped back into the throne room, she jumped forward at the sound of the ignition of a lightsaber, turning around to face the woman. "Incarcerous!" she yelled, but this time, the woman was ready, and the ropes coming out of her wand were sliced apart by a twirling crimson blade. Hermione abandoned the effort and jumped backwards as the woman swung at her.

"Stupefy!" She made another attempt, but the woman dodged. She sent a stream of fire at her, which the woman just deflected with her lightsaber. Hermione sent pieces of junk flying at the woman, but her enemy actually laughed and flung them back at her. Hermione dodged a few, but had to blast one apart. She was getting desperate, and running out of ideas.

"Impedimenta!" She blocked the woman's new attempt to approach her close enough to strike. But constantly casting spells tired you out, and she knew she would soon lose.

"Calorio!" She tried the heating spell again. She felt the lightsaber become hot in the woman's hand... but the woman resisted. When she couldn't hold on to the weapon anymore, she threw it, spinning, at Hermione.

"Protego!" the witch yelled, stopping the lightsaber. "Stupefy!" she fired the spell at the woman, who jumped over her to avoid it. Hermione turned to face her...

And immediately saw the incredible opportunity. She focused her concentration on the target and flicked her wand.

As the woman landed on the floor, the trap door under her opened, and she continued falling down into the rancor pit. Hermione, not believing her luck, rushed out of the throne room to the other entrance.

She was almost too late. As she ran into the cave, the woman already crawled around the dead rancor and was rushing for the door. "Colloportus!" she yelled, and the spell hit just as the woman was grabbing at the door. It didn't open. Hermione sighed with relief.

"You cheated," the woman accused her.

"Cheating implies the existence of rules," retorted Hermione. "Who are you, and who sent you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"Fine. Then stay here and starve."

"I'm just a dancer."

Hermione laughed. "Dancers usually don't get trained in lightsaber combat. Try again."

"And if I do..."

"You won't starve."

"Someone will find me and release me before that."

"I can prevent that." She couldn't, or at least not with any spell that could be done quickly enough, but of course, the woman didn't know that. Hermione saw her fear.

"What do you want to know?"

"The usual stuff. Your name. Who you work for. Why you came here."

"My name is Roganda Ismaren. I was hired to kill Organa," the woman said, after thinking for a moment.

Leia, Hermione thought. "So who hired you? The Empire?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It's not like I care, as long as I get paid."

Hermione suspected the woman was lying, but there was no time for a real interrogation. She was not a Legilimens, and this woman was obviously trained in concealment. She got up.

"Like I said, you won't starve." Hermione waved her wand and a large plate full of food appeared in front of the woman. "But it will be a while before you get out," she added, and with another wave of her wand, collapsed a portion of the cave's ceiling. A wall of rocks blocked the door. Hearing the woman curse, Hermione headed away.

She carefully opened the room where she left Ooola. The Twi'lek girl was up. "Hello," she said.

"We're getting out of here."

"I was afraid you would leave me there."

Hermione shook her head. "I keep my promises."

At the hangar, Hermione picked a landspeeder, and soon, they were driving across the desert. Then Hermione's comlink chirped.

"Granger here," she said, taking one hand off the steering mechanism.

"Hermione!" Luke's voice shouted. "Why didn't you come with us?"

"There was a woman in the palace, disguised as a dancer, who was very eager to get on the barge. She had a lightsaber and was trained with it."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. She is locked in the rancor pit, and I got her 'saber. She says she is an assassin hired to kill Leia, but I don't believe her."

"Right... well, we're all alive, Jabba is dead, and we're going back." Ooola said something in Twi'leki. Hermione didn't understand it, but the girl sounded happy.

"Luke, where did you take that Twi'lek slave girl you rescued from Fortuna a few days ago?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"There was another Twi'lek there, right? She refused to come? Well, she's next to me."

"Oh." Luke gave her the address.

"Thanks. Don't bother waiting for me, I'll be okay. See you back at the fleet."

"Good luck."

"You too."

XXXXXXXX

A few hours later, Ron, despite aching from lying on his back most of that time, felt a lot better about their prospects of getting away. The ship's engines had been put to the test at low power and worked, shields were good, and hyperdrive appeared to have no problems. Back in his world, he sometimes made fun of his father for tinkering with Muggle devices. And now, I'm doing the same thing. Dad would like it here...

Jan called to take a break. Ron actually left the chamber and took a peek outside before coming back for a bite to eat.

"Hey, Jan," he said.

"What?"

"Do you know what time it is?"

"I don't have a chrono, either, why?"

"It's the middle of the night. And we noticed nothing."

"I hate Coruscant," Jan whispered.

"Huh?"

"That's one of the reasons. You don't really keep track of time here without glancing at a chrono every ten minutes. Even if you're outside, it's always--depending how deep you are--either too dark during the day or too bright at night."

"Where're you from?" Ron asked.

"Alderaan."

"I'm sorry."

"You weren't even in this galaxy when it happened. And since you were brought here, you couldn't get back, right? So your world is as lost to you as mine is to me."

Ron was first shocked at the idea. "No," he said. "Don't pretend it's the same. I still might be able to get back. Most of the people I knew there are probably still alive--although there's a war going on back there too. I can hope. You can't. And hope is a very powerful force--Leia once told me that that's what the Rebellion was made of."

"But I do hope, Ron. I hope of a victory--and a life where I don't have to sleep with a loaded blaster under my pillow."

Ron chuckled. "Do you know how many ways people express that sentiment? Pilots say 'sleep in the cockpit of a starfighter', but the idea is the same. Yeah, I'd like that too." He leaned closer to her, almost brushing her face.

And then they kissed.

It seemed to take both of them by surprise. "Did you just kiss me?" they both said together, and laughed at the stupidity of the question.

"So," she asked, "where do we go from here?"

Ron acted on impulse. "Well," he said, "how about," he pulled her head towards him and firmly pressed his lips on hers, "here." They embraced each other and continued the kiss.

"Ron," Jan whispered, "If they barge in now, I'm not exactly in a position to fight," she said as he leaned over her."

"Neither am I," he broke away and grinned. "Another reason to win this war, don't you agree?"

Jan gave him a final quick kiss before picking up the toolkit again. "Absolutely."