Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 52.

Mara finished the preflight check. She was about to launch when she fell back into her seat, eyes closed.

"Mara? Are you all right?"

"Palpatine," she said. "He's trying to get into my mind again."

"Can you--"

"I am blocking. But I need to concentrate. You'll have to fly."

"Sure," Harry said, taking the controls. He was nervous, having never flown anything bigger than an X-wing. He remembered how Ron told him about flying the Falcon through the asteroid field and escaping Coruscant in a wreck he and Jan named the Padfoot. This is probably better-made than either of those, he thought.

There was a problem, however. Nothing could be seen through the viewports, both of which were completely black.

"Why can't we see anything?" he asked.

"The cloak works both ways, Potter."

"So how am I supposed to fly?"

Mara looked at him. "And you call yourself a Jedi," she said.

Realizing what she meant Harry frowned. The Force was useful, but it was still unusual to fly without eyesight.

"Here goes nothing," he said. He closed his eyes (they were useless anyway, and closing the eyes helped him relax), stretched out with the Force, and lifted the ship off the planet.

Turning the craft around, he aimed it up, and increased thrust. "Let's just hope that I can detect anything coming our way," he said. There were a lot of Imperial craft up there, and if he didn't hurry, the Rebellion's fleet would soon be added into the mix.

Something hit him. "Mara? How are we going to get through the shield?"

"The--oh."

"Yes. The shield that's protecting the Death Star."

Mara thought for a moment. "We'll have to wait till some other ship needs to go in or out," she said.

"What if there isn't one? Flying blind now is hard enough. When the battle starts--"

"There'll be at least one." Harry lifted his eyebrows. "Vader," she explained.

"You want me to follow Darth Vader?"

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?"

"I guess not. But he'll probably sense--"

"We only need to follow him through the shield. Vader's obsessed with Skywalker, though I have no clue why. He won't be concentrating. And even if he calls in fighters, how are they going to get us? You think about the maybes too much, Potter."

"Right." Harry concentrated further. He found a dark presence in the Force... Probably Vader, he thought, and almost at the same location, another, light, familiar. Luke! He didn't seem to be in danger at the moment, though. He turned and followed.

Although they knew it was stupid to pretend that talking increased their chances of detection, they were silent for a while. Harry concentrated on getting closer to the Death Star and being in position to follow Luke and Vader when they cleared the shield.

He jerked the craft. Mara fell to the right. "What was that for?"

"TIE fighter. Almost didn't see him coming. Well, I didn't see him," he corrected himself.

"Yeah, sure. Just be careful next time."

"There won't be a next time," he said. "We're past the shield."

"Are we? Good. Now land in one of the bays. We'll make our own way up."

"Up where?"

"Wherever Palpatine, Vader, and Voldemort are."

"You think they'll be together?"

"And if they're not?"

"Who do we go after first? And what about Luke? He's with Vader."

"He thinks he can turn him," Mara said.

"Turn him?"

"From the dark side."

Harry sat, stunned. What was he thinking?

"Well, Vader didn't kill him yet."

"I know." Harry didn't ask how.

"So, who do we go after first?"

"The more vulnerable target, the one that doesn't command all the forces there," Mara said.

"Voldemort."

"Right."

"I'm going to land," he said.

Harry maneuvered the cloaked vessel into the battle station. "Let's hope we don't have to get out of here in a hurry. The ship barely fit through," he said as he landed on the hangar floor.

He felt a warning through the Force, and saw that Mara was moving as well. He whipped out his wand. "Reducto!" he shouted, putting so much force into the spell that the entire front panel, with both viewports, flew off. "Get out, now!" he yelled, before executing a Force jump. Landing on the floor, he ran.

Four ceiling turrets focused on the ship, that now was partially visible, and fired. The explosion caused Harry to fall down on the floor, head ringing. He struggled to get up.

"Damn it, I rather liked that ship," Mara said.

A door opened, letting in a squad of stormtroopers. The ceiling turrets, having finished off the ship, turned on them.

Lightsabers flared up, and made the turrets worse than useless, as their bolts were sent at the the stormtroopers. Their rifles didn't do them any good either.

Once the hangar was cleared, Harry shut down his lightsaber. Mara followed suit. "Let's get this over with," she said.

They went the same way the stormtroopers came through. But as soon as they did so, the double door behind them slammed shut. Uh-oh, Harry thought.

He heard a loud pop, and felt pain in his scar. Lord Voldemort Apparated into the room.

XXXXXX

"We're going to sneak inside under the Invisibility Cloak," Ginny said.

"We?" Ron asked.

"You, me and Jan. That'll be the most the cloak can cover."

"They can't have that many people inside," Ron said. "We can handle it."

"There's just one problem with that," Han said. "The door. It's closed and probably locked, and if you try to force it, they'll hear you outside and notice inside, cloak or not."

Jan smiled. "We won't be going through the door."

"What?" Leia asked.

"Artoo, show them."

The droid showed a detailed plan of the bunker. Han shrugged. They knew most of this already.

"Right there," Jan pointed. "A top hatch for emergency evacuation."

"Evacuation? Through the roof?"

"Why not? If there's fire, or enemy troops all around, you can go on the roof, and have a shuttle pick you up."

"Our intelligence reports didn't mention this," Leia said. "Artoo, where did you get this from?"

The droid chirped. "He says," Threepio translated, "that this was on the data chip brought by Miss Jade."

Ron nodded. "Strange we missed it in yesterday's session."

"I didn't," Jan said. "I just didn't really think about its usefulness."

"Guys, need I remind you of another problem here?" Han chided them. "This would be a great plan--if you could get to the roof."

"Ginny," Jan prompted.

"Fine, fine. THE PLAN," she announced, "in all its glorious detail." She pulled something out of her pocket. "Engorgio!" A broomstick lay on the ground before them.

"Now, since Ron destroyed the Firebolt, this is the best we have," she said. Ron grunted. Ginny then took out a long coil of rope.

"This is Self-Pulling Rope," she announced. "We tie it on the roof, and then, it will pull us all up--while covered in the cloak."

"Yeah, except the rope itself will be visible."

"Wrong." Ginny took out her wand, and performed an Invisibility Charm. "This will wear off in about an hour, but we don't need that much. Now, I'm going to tie this on the roof of that bunker. Before Ron could protest, she wrapped herself in the cloak. The broomstick vanished seconds later, and they felt a light swoosh of air.

"Kid, your sister's crazy," Han commented.

Ron groaned. "Tell me something I don't know."

"This coming from someone who jumped off a Coruscant skyscraper, and took on an Imperial Star Destroyer in a ship that was ready to fall apart," Jan mused.

"Oh, I've got to hear that story," Han said.

Ron blushed. "I had no choice."

"No one does crazy things by choice," Jan said.

"Sometimes I think Han does," Leia said. Chewbacca voiced his agreement.

"Really, Princess? You're not exactly the cautious type yourself."

Leia was about to retort, when Ginny appeared next to them. "It's there," she said simply.

Jan glanced at her chrono. "Ten minutes from now, you take out the guards on the outside. We'll prevent them from sounding the alarm, so we'll have sufficient time to set the charges."

"Good luck," Leia said, shaking each of their hands.

Ginny covered them with the cloak, and they slowly moved towards the bunker, careful not to reveal an ankle or a hand by accident.

"We're lucky you're here," Jan said. "The Imps probably didn't count on magic."

"Probably not," Ron agreed.

"Guys, be quiet," Ginny whispered. This would be the most dangerous part... sneaking by towards their goal within a few feet of the stormtroopers.

But the Imperials were watching the forest, expecting an attack from them. They got behind them, and, crouching, made it to the other side of the bunker, where the rope waited for them.

"Grab on," Ginny said. She then pulled out her wand and tapped the rope. They were pulled up.

It was very uncomfortable, and they nearly dropped the cloak twice, but they had made it to the roof. Jan quickly found the hatch.

"It's manual," she said. "Of course, it would be, for emergencies."

"Look!" Ron said, alarmed.

One of their Ewok guides climbed onto a speeder bike hovering near the entrance, and sped off. Shouting, three of the four stormtroopers on guard jumped on their bikes and headed after him.

"No more surprise," Ginny said. "But we still should get inside. They won't expect that. Alohomora!"

They opened the hatch. Ron jumped in first, and, seeing an Imperial officer turn around, stunned him. Jan followed, recovering from the fall and firing her blaster. Ginny landed next to them, sending the last standing soldier down with her Bat-Boogey Hex.

"There's got to be more of them," she said.

"I know. Let's get to the entrance and link up with the rest," Jan replied.

Ron opened a door into a corridor. Weapons ready, they headed down it. Like in the forest, everything was quiet.

"I think it's a trap," he said.

"Maybe," Ginny said. "But did they prepare their trap for magic?"

"I don't know how, but for some reason, I am afraid they might have."

"That's--"

"Be quiet!" Jan insisted.

"Sorry."

The room at the end of the corridor was dark. As soon as they were in, the door they just went through slammed behind them. They raised their weapons.

A spotlight turned on, lighting up a person in the middle of the room, bound and gagged. To their surprise, both Ron and Jan recognized him.

"Kyle?" Jan whispered.

But before the man could make so much as a gesture, the room was filled with the sound of another voice.

"Expelliarmus!"