Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 53.

"Voldemort," Harry said aside to Mara.

"I sort of figured that," she said.

Voldemort lifted his wand. "Imperio!" he said. "Jade, kill Potter." Then he Disapparated.

"Mara, fight it!" he yelled. But Mara ignited her lightsaber and attacked him.

Harry drew his own weapon, and blocked.

Mara lashed out with a kick, but Harry stepped back in time. Raising his weapon again, he stopped another attack, then stopped himself from striking back. He flipped a switch with the Force and stepped back into a long corridor. Mara followed.

"Not going to attack me, Potter?"

"Mara, it's the Imperius curse! He's controlling your mind. Fight it!"

Under a flurry of lightsaber strikes, Harry retreated again. He thought about counterattacking, but decided against it.

"Mara," he said. A slash at his legs. "You." A thrust at his gut. "Are." A Force-push that he had to resist, summoning the Force himself. "Not." A Force leap over him, forcing him to turn and block. "Being." A crate hurling towards him at high speed, making him duck. "Yourself." Harry stepped back at every attack.

"Oh, I am myself, Potter," she replied. "This feels good."

"The Imperius curse makes you feel happy when you do what the caster tells you to do. That's not real happiness, and you know it. Of all people--" Harry missed a kick and fell onto the floor. Shaking, he got up.

Mara attacked again. "Damn you!" she screamed. "I should have let you rot in that prison!"

"Pull yourself together!" he shouted. He dodged another kick, then blocked Mara's blade. "Kick him out!"

Mara ignored him, and kept attacking. Harry switched to a one-handed grip on his lightsaber and drew his wand. "Finite Incantatem!" he shouted.

Mara didn't stop the attack. Harry flinched. That charm wasn't the end-all, but as far he knew, the Imperius curse was not one of the spells immune to it. Of course, who knew what sort of "improvements" Voldemort might have made to it.

Mara's next strike attempted to either knock the wand out or cut off his hand. The lightsaber slid off a hastily conjured shield, but Harry did drop the wand, although he summoned it back even before it hit the ground.

"Mara, I don't want to fight you. Stupefy!"

Mara dodged the spell. "Too bad, Potter."

How do you fight someone you don't want to kill or even hurt, but who's trying her utmost to kill you? Harry wondered. He'd never had that situation before.

A door opened behind them. Harry stepped in. Mara jumped after him. "Stupefy!" Harry tried again. Mara managed to catch the spell on her blade, where it dissipated.

The door closed, and Harry realized he and Mara were confined in an elevator cabin. They locked blades again. Harry had to go back to the two-handed grip to avoid being forced onto his own weapon. The elevator began moving up.

"Mara, you know this is wrong. He's using you! They're both using you! Fight them!"

"I'm going to kill you, Potter." There was no room to swing lightsabers, but it didn't stop her from trying.

Harry didn't think he could resist much longer. Suddenly, the door behind them opened.

"Your faith in your friends," he heard Palpatine's voice, "is yours."

Then, just as he stepped out of the elevator, he felt Voldemort very close. In fact, he was right behind him.

"Avada Kedavra!" the Dark Lord shouted.

XXXXXX

Ron's wand flew out of his hand. Jan and Ginny were also immediately disarmed.

Two figures, a man and a woman, stepped out. Ron gasped. While he had no idea who the woman was, he knew the man very well. Former Death Eater, former Potions Master, Professor Snape was standing in front of them, dressed in black, as always, aiming his wand at them.

"I can see that whatever galaxy you end up in, you will always find a way to associate with its dregs," Snape said. He cast a spell, removing Kyle's binds. "Get up," he ordered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.

"I will have your respect, Weasley," Snape replied.

"No," Ron said. "You won't." Ron thought Snape wanted something from them... if he wanted them dead, he would have killed them already.

The woman looked like a female version of Snape--pale, black-haired, black-eyed, with a hooked nose. She was dressed in a gray jumpsuit and carried a lightsaber on her belt.

"Kyle," Jan spoke up. "How did--"

"Silence!" Snape said.

"He was foolish enough to free me," the woman answered.

They stared, not understanding.

The woman laughed. "I told him I was condemned to starve to death in prison by Jabba the Hutt. He," she pointed at Kyle, "believed me. So I overpowered him--"

"Jabba the Hutt?" Ron asked. He looked at Kyle, realizing something horrible. "On Tatooine?"

Kyle nodded, and Ron exhaled sharply. "You're Roganda Ismaren," he said.

"Who?" Ginny asked.

"I'll tell you later," he said.

The woman looked at them. "Close, but not quite. It's Roganda Ismaren Snape," she said.

Whatever Ron was expecting, it wasn't that. "You're married?" he asked.

"Move!" Snape said.

They were marched through the bunker. Ron struggled to think of something, anything, he could do. But, although he had learned some hand-to-hand combat in Intelligence, he knew he couldn't take on

Snape with a wand--or the woman with the lightsaber, if she was half as skillful as Luke or Harry.

"I'll take that," Snape stepped up to Ginny and took away the Invisibility Cloak. Ginny cursed.

They heard shouts up ahead. "Han!" Leia's voice yelled. "Hurry! The fleet will be here any moment!"

And we haven't brought the shield down. They'll be sitting ducks.

"Charges! Come on, come on!" Han replied.

They stepped into the space, just as Imperial troops ran in from the open outside door, aiming their blasters at Han and Leia. "You Rebel scum," the officer said.

They were quickly disarmed. "Good job," Roganda told the officer.

"I guess my plan wasn't so good after all," Ginny remarked.

"It's not your fault," Leia said.

"Silence!" Snape demanded.

Under the point of dozens of blasters, they were marched back outside. The entire rebel infiltration team was herded there. In addition to the stormtroopers, several walkers were pointing their laser cannons at them. They'll probably execute us, Ron thought. He glanced behind him. Snape looked pleased. That can never be good...

This was a thousand times worse then when he was facing arrest on Coruscant. This was an enemy who knew about magic and what it was capable of. He had a momentary idea to tackle Snape, and hope that the time it took Snape to kill him would allow Ginny to grab her wand. One glance at Roganda was enough to strike that idea. The two could easily cover each other, and any such attempt would end up with both of them dead.

There was nothing he could do now. He even lost the opportunity to attack Snape, and maybe bring him down, at the cost of his own life. The Imperials would simply massacre them now. The war was over. They lost.

"Harry," Ginny whispered nearby. Ron glanced at his sister... and knew that there was something he had to do. "Jan, I love you," the words came out of his mouth almost automatically.

Jan looked at him and smiled. "So you finally got around to it," she said.

He barely registered the bright flash of light and the loud bang that followed.