Chapter Text
Star Wars: Civil War
Book Two: Allies & Enemies
Rebellion on the run! After a decisive victory at Kuat, the Rebellion has retreated to the Chiss Ascendancy.
NORMAN OSBORN has seized control of the Empire and declared himself Emperor of the galaxy.
Locked in a Rebel cell, Imperial Security Bureau Agent PETER PARKER is forced to decide what his future will bring, and where his loyalties lie….
Chapter 1
Peter Parker had thought he understood large cities, he had grown up in Coronet City, after all. He had made fun of people who got overwhelmed by big cities, all those fake tourists, not understanding what it was to live in a big city. But now, living on Coruscant, he had to admit that those people had a point.
Coronet City was like a one bedroom apartment compared to Coruscant. An entire planet. Just one city. Of course the Imperial Capital was here. It just made too much sense to not be here. And now he was here too. Imperial Security Bureau extraordinaire, Peter Parker, reporting for duty.
Peter was riding a yellow hover-car taxi to the Imperial Palace, ready to go to work for the first time in two months. The Imperial Palace had undergone several massive renovations since the Clone Wars ended, but this newest one was, in Peter’s opinion, the most garish of them all. Grand Moff Tony Stark had started remaking the Palace, which had originally been the Jedi Temple, into a singular large tower overlooking the entire planet.
Now, the newly crowned Emperor Norman Osborn was not only continuing that work, but also striving to make it even more imposing and deadly. More blaster emplacements and even some large cameras to watch the citizens of Coruscant. It was a constant surveillance state, and Peter was just another tool used by the Empire to surveil.
The hover car stopped on the walk-way leading up to the Imperial Palace’s main entrance. It was a long walk-way made to highlight the grandeur of the main palace. Peter remembered reading about Emperor Palpatine’s original intentions about the palace in his AP Galactic History course; but now he was here for the first time.
He jogged up the stairs and looked around. His armor was loose, bouncing off of his chest as he ran up. He sees figures wearing deep scarlet robes, holding a long spear. These were the Emperor’s personal guards, extremely loyal and deadly, if the rumors were to be believed. Grand Moff Stark had refrained from using them, telling Peter that he found them to be ‘like droids, but with even less personality.’ He chuckled to himself, MJ would call that anti-droid.
Now he was smiling. He couldn’t wait to get back to her. Back to Ned, too. But he had to do this first, he had to set things right. It was his responsibility to fix it.
Peter reached the entrance to the palace, and waved at the woman in full Imperial regalia manning the entrance. She did not return his smile or wave.
“Identification,” she demanded, without even looking up. She pointed to the scanner, indicating that he should scan it.
He complied, and the light went green, accepting his entry.
“Thank you,” she said in the same monotone, “welcome to the Imperial Palace.” She hit a button on her desk and the doors opened.
Peter walked through the doors and was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of emerald in the decor of the main hall. There was already a Bronzium statue of Osborn in the center of the hall. It all made him sick, the amount of arrogance Osborn possessed. Then he realized that was probably what it took to proclaim yourself Emperor of the galaxy.
He gathered himself, taking a deep breath and walked through the hall to the lift. He had to swipe his identi-card again, the security here was tight. He entered the lift and let out a sigh of relief. He really shouldn’t have, but it was the first time he felt like he had truly been alone since he… well since he returned from his captivity.
TWO MONTHS EARLIER
“GET DOWN!” Sharon Carter’s shout came just in time for Michelle to duck and evade the missile that was heading her way. She had been trained for espionage, not all out war, and war stressed her out. A lot. Sure, that was probably normal, but she still didn’t like it.
It had only been a couple of days since they had escaped the Kuat Drive Yards, and in that time they had reached a full fledged civil war. Even with the backing of some Chiss Ascendancy forces, they were still outnumbered and outgunned, but she was still a lot more confident than she would have been without them.
“Need a hand,” Michelle looked up from where she had fallen to see Nakia, hand outstretched to pull her up.
“Thanks,” she accepted the hand, and Nakia pulled her up off the ground. She had only known the Chiss spy for a few days, but she already trusted her with her life. Some of that was probably that she had already saved her life. Twice, if she was being honest. But there was something real and genuine about Nakia that made her seem trustworthy. “What’s the prognosis?”
“Eh,” she shrugged, “it could always be worse.”
“That’s encouraging,” Michelle mumbled. She looked out at the world in front of her.
A Gozanti class assault carrier hung in the air just over the horizon, dispatching TIE Fighters and Bombers. Commander Rogers had had them set up an anti-air cannon that was manned by Kate Bishop. Two AT-ST walkers lurched towards the Rebel line on their rickety legs. They looked so unstable that if you gave a leg a good push you could knock them right over.
As it turned out, somebody was running up behind them looking to do just that. James “Bucky” Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier, a complicated figure in the history of the galaxy, very few people actually knew that much about him. One thing, Michelle knew though, was that his entire left arm had been removed and replaced with a Beskar prosthetic. This meant that he might be able to actually knock over the walkers.
He gave one of the walkers a solid punch to the legs. Nothing happened. He hit it again. It wobbled. A Stormtrooper squad noticed him finally and took aim at him. But Bucky didn’t even give them a glance. One by one, all nine of them dropped dead, a hole burning in each of their chests.
Bucky gave another hard punch and the walker toppled over, taking the other with it.
“Nice shot, Kate,” Michelle said into her comm.
“That was me, actually,” Barton responded.
“Thanks,” Kate replied. Michelle could picture her smile through the comm.
Nakia looked over at her. “Why do you antagonize him?”
“Because it’s fun,” Michelle smiled. It was probably the first time she had smiled since Kuat.
Peter Parker had no idea where he was. Well, he was in a prison cell, that much he knew. But beyond that he had no answers. He was probably being held in some Rebel facility, but he didn’t know on what planet or in what system or even if was on a planet. He could even be on a space station or a ship. He had heard rumors of a Rebel prison that was inside of a dying star, but he doubted that they would take him there… right?
His cell was bright, with white walls and an orange light covering it. He had spent at least about three days in the cell, and since he had woken up there, he still didn’t know how much more he had been there.
He knelt with his back to the side wall, his knees up to his stomach, his head bowed over them. The only sentient contact he had gotten since he had awakened was a man with dark brown skin who gave him his food. Peter had tried to meet his eyes, but he refused to meet his gaze, as if interacting with Peter was beneath this man.
From what he could see outside of his cell, there was just a row of empty space in front of him and a stairway that led to the door out of the room. His cell was ray-shielded, which meant that he had no hope of escape. He wondered if Michelle was still alive. He wondered if Ned and Governor Stark were looking for him. Maybe they thought he was dead. While he didn’t like being in prison, a large part of him was happy that he hadn’t killed Michelle. He knew this because he had blacked out right before he pulled the trigger. Everything after that was nothingness.
Peter heard the door open with a swish and looked up to see the person coming through. He had just gotten his breakfast, so he shouldn’t be getting more food. He had no idea who would be coming to talk to him.
As soon as he recognized the person walking through the door, his jaw dropped. He scrambled up and placed his hands against the ray shield. He couldn’t believe his luck, Ned had come to rescue him.
“Ned!” He said, “I can’t believe you’re here. That you’re here to rescue me.” Peter almost cried with relief. “Come on, we have to be quick, open the door.”
Ned didn’t react. He just stared at Peter with a mix of disgust and sympathy. Without even realizing it, Peter took a step back.
“Ned, please,” Peter begged.
“I’m not here to rescue you,” Ned said.
A horrible idea dawned on Peter. But he refused to believe it, there had to be another reason.
“Did you get… Did you get captured too?” Peter asked. He knew it wasn’t true, but he had to believe it couldn’t be that. Ned just shook his head.
Peter turned around. He couldn’t bear to look at his friend. He wanted to be angry, but something wasn’t letting him.
“How long?” Ned didn’t answer. Peter rounded on his heel and yelled at Ned. “HOW LONG WERE YOU A TRAITOR? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LYING TO ME?”
Ned just stares at him. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he sighed and opened his mouth.
“Just over a year.” It was all falling into place; the way Ned had acted when Peter had met Michelle; the way that he had immediately decided Michelle was great; the way he already called her by a nickname. He should have seen the signs. But he was blind to it.
“You knew Michelle.” It wasn’t a question, but Ned nodded again anyway. Peter’s entire world was falling apart. Michelle had been one thing, but he had known Ned for almost two decades, how could he have betrayed him? How could Ned have joined the very people who murdered Aunt May? “Why?”
“I couldn’t keep working for the Empire,” Ned began, he took another large breath, “I just… I just couldn’t.”
“So you decided to work for the people who killed Aunt May?” He sneered down at Ned. Somehow the dam had broken and now all he felt was anger. It powered every little part of his being, he felt like he should release it and make everybody else feel his pain.
“Pete,” Ned whispered, “I’m sorry about that, I am, and I get why you’re angry, but you don’t know the things I have seen.”
“How could you possibly join these terrorists?” Peter shouted. The question was not genuine. The rage continued to bubble up inside him, threatening to explode out into a volcano of destruction. “These murderers? These scum? These villains?”
“Damn it, Peter!” Ned finally broke, and Peter was taken aback. He had never seen Ned get this angry about something. “Osborn was building a planet killer! The Empire would massacre entire populations if they wanted to, I saw it happen! WE WERE THE BAD GUYS, PETER! Every single thing the Empire blames on the Rebellion are things they constantly do. I couldn’t stand by anymore, so I made my choice. I chose to help. To be part of the solution.”
Peter collapsed onto the floor. The well of anger from just a moment ago had evaporated, replaced by the cold, hard fear that had always been at the back of his mind. The fear that maybe he was on the wrong side.
“I made the hard choice, I turned my back on everything and everyone I knew,” Ned’s words cut through Peter’s ruminations, “I wasn’t given a choice so I made one for myself. You’re lucky. You’re getting an opportunity, an opportunity most people don’t get, an opportunity to do the right thing.”
A frozen thought stabbed at Peter’s heart.
“Is Michelle…,” he trailed off.
“MJ’s alive.” Ned said.
It took a long moment for Peter to finally look back up at Ned, but when he did, his best friend was no longer there. Peter brought his hands to his face, rubbing at the tears that were forming.
The lift door opened onto the Imperial floor, what Osborn called his office and living quarters. Peter just found it to be pretentious and rather ugly. He stepped out and looked toward the door.
“Agent Parker,” a blonde woman said behind a large half-circle desk in front of the office door, “Emperor Osborn will be with you in a moment, he’s just finishing up an earlier meeting.”
“Of course,” Peter said, smiling at the poor woman, “Thank you.”
“You may take a seat while you wait,” she gestured to an emerald velvet couch that sat opposite her desk. Peter hadn’t noticed when he had entered the room.
He obliged and sat down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to center himself. Just as he was beginning to find himself the door opened and voices spoke, exiting.
A young man, just about Peter’s age, was being led out by Norman Osborn himself. Peter had to avoid doing a double take, because the younger man looked almost exactly like Norman Osborn.
“Harry,” the elder Osborn said, “I understand that you are having trouble, but I am a very busy man, and I need to take care of things.”
“Dad,” Harry pleaded, “I just wanted some help, I just, I hardly see---,” he’s cut off when Norman notices Peter.
“Ah, Agent Parker,” he said. “It’s good to see you alive and well.”