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The high pitched scream sent Veers’ heart rate rocketing and he increased his pace. Even so, he didn’t manage to out run his friend.
Because that had been a scream of terror and pain from a child .
And Piett was frankly terrifying when it came to those who hurt children.
Veers had to catch up if he wanted to watch the Captain disembowel whoever it was that had caused that scream.
After making their way through the horrific hallway filled with the bodies of what Veers presumed were Jedi, he was glad to be in a more spartan area. Being underwater had him jumpy as it was, but he would see this through.
Lord Vader had been certain that Palpatine would bring his daughter here. That he would personally wish to… work on her in secret.
Veers had been furious from the moment he heard the news. To torture a ten year old child… ! He’d seen many awful things in war. He’d experienced terrible pain both emotional and physical. He had accepted that the galaxy could be cruel and relentless.
But he’d held onto his heart. To his soul. It was the chief reason he and Firmus were such close friends. Both of them understood the crucial nature of retaining their humanity in the face of all the horror they fought.
Veers had never dreamed that his path would lead here—to the Fortress Inquisitorious. He’d heard rumors of it. One did if one worked for a Sith Lord and was in the high levels of command. To actually set foot upon it—let alone for the mad quest they were pursuing—had not even entered his mind.
But General Max Veers’ life had been upended about a month previous when he’d been ordered by Vader himself to bring a small squad of his most trusted men to Naboo of all the out of the way places.
He’d arrived as surreptitiously as possible to the coordinates he’d been given and found that they were high in the mountains overlooking one of the many beautiful lakes the planet boasted. Here, he was greeted by a tired looking man who looked vaguely familiar, and it took Veers long minutes to realize this was because he’d seen his face on most wanted posters in the Empire.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
If only that had been the most shocking revelation.
A tiny blonde child with inordinate amounts of confidence was hovering nearby as Lord Vader swept in— without his mask —to inform Veers that the Emperor had just tried to assassinate them all and he, Vader, was having none of it since the mite was his son, Luke Skywalker.
Apparently, he intended to overthrow Palpatine, who, it turned out, was a Sith Lord.
This was actually the least surprising news for Veers. A being with the power that Lord Vader wielded surely could have easily overpowered an old man without any access to the Force. Which meant Palpatine wasn't just any old man.
Reading between the lines, Veers deduced he was being asked to join this exceedingly treasonous endeavor, but he had one question only.
Where was Captain Piett?
Lord Vader had stared at him with an unreadable expression and Kenobi had the gall to smirk in an irritatingly condescending fashion and say ‘I told you so, Anakin. You picked men loyal to yourself and each other. Hardly the action of a true Sith.’
Deciding to ignore the traitor Jedi at the moment, Veers merely assumed a perfectly correct parade ground posture and watched his Lordship intently. Because if Piett had been sacrificed for this endeavor after all his friend had given…
Veers would wash his hands of it all and join the Rebellion.
Lord Vader stalked up to him and Veers didn’t care if he could read what the General was thinking. Let him. Vader merely tilted his head slightly then smiled. It was very disconcerting to see his face like this—to see a very human countenance after the years of the fearsome mask.
“Your ability for extreme self control has always served you well, General Veers. I appreciate this quality in both you and Piett. General Kenobi will take you to him. There is much more to be discussed after.”
And so Veers had allowed a Jedi to lead him through the well made structure to a very comfortable room fitted out in blues and whites. This whole building reminded him of nothing so much as an elegant ski lodge and he wondered how Vader had access to it.
But the mysteries of Lord Vader could take a life time, and Max was much more interested in the slight Captain who was utterly dwarfed by the size of the bed he lay in. He looked up as they entered, laying down the data pad he’d been studying and smiling broadly when he saw who it was. He looked very well, and Veers wouldn’t have known he’d been injured had it not been for the oxygen canula under his nose.
A small form shot by him and landed on the bed beside Piett who chuckled even as Kenobi groaned.
“Luke! Do you want to kill him indeed? You are not a human cannon ball.”
“I aimed just right,” the child protested as though it were obvious. “Hi, Captain! Look who’s here! You were right too. He’s SO much taller than you.”
“Thank you for that vigorous agreement, Luke,” Piett said, holding out a hand which Veers clasped warmly before seating himself beside his friend.
“What happened to you?” he asked, noting that Luke, for all his squirrely tendencies, was remarkably careful not to actually jar Piett.
The Captain sighed. “It turns out, Max, that being between a rock wall and an angry Force user is not conducive to one’s health. I assure you I’m well on the mend. This is just…”
“Six broken ribs, a cracked vertebrae and a punctured lung,” Kenobi said evenly, his tone indicating this was not the first time he'd heard Piett's impatience with healing. “And he is indeed well on the mend because he has been given MEDICAL CARE.”
Kenobi folded his arms and looked pointedly at the Captain.
“Ok then,” Veers said, turning back to the long-suffering face of his friend. “What’s the decision on treason?”
The decision had led them here as it turned out. Sprinting through nightmare and underwater tunnels to save a kidnapped little princess.
He entered a vast and darkened room after his friend only to find Kenobi lifting Leia Organa down from a gruesome looking device, the bodies of two troopers lying like so much refuse on the floor.
Cut in two.
“Take them!” Kenobi ordered breathlessly. Veers gaped as he realized ‘them’ meant Luke as well.
What in the KARK was was he doing here? How had he followed them into this fortress?
“Take them and keep them safe with your lives,” the Jedi stated fiercely, placing Leia in Piett’s arms and then looking over at Veers with the same intensity.
“Where are you going?” Veers asked, reaching for Luke and pulling him to his side.
“Anakin went after Palpatine,” Kenobi replied. “I’m going to help him. Go with Captain Piett and General Veers, Luke,” he said, touching the boy’s cheek gently.
“What about my mother and father?” the girl sobbed. “Ben, are they ok?”
“They’re ok,” he reassured. “And these men will get you to them all right, Princess?”
“What about you , Ben?” Luke asked. “Please let me help…! You showed me!!”
“No, young one,” Obi-Wan said so gently. “I have to help your father. The Force be with you all. Get them safe!” he ordered and then he was gone.
Piett looked to Veers and then down to the little girl desperately trying to control her sobs and her fear.
Only ten.
Zev hadn’t even made it to that age. But Veers vowed silently that these children would live, if he had to die to ensure it.
“Let’s go,” he said firmly, gripping his blaster with one hand, and Luke’s arm with the other.
“Can you walk, darling?” Piett murmured behind him to Leia. She must have replied in the affirmative because then his friend was right with him, his own blaster ready.
They moved down a narrow corridor made of clear plasteel. Veers tightened his jaw at the dim swirl of water outside and did his best to keep his mind clear.
He felt Piett’s hand touch his shoulder briefly and knew that his friend was aware of his deeply buried fear.
They were nearly at a t-junction when Veers noted that a red light had begun to flash along the edge of the smooth black flooring and the tube began to tremble very slightly.
Both children froze and looked at each other.
“Run,” Leia whispered, and Veers felt chills run up his spine at her tone. But he believed her and so did Piett. They each grabbed a small hand and sprinted for the junction as the shaking intensified and then the sound that Veers had been dreading assaulted his ears.
Cracking plasteel.
“GO!” Piett yelled behind him and they pushed as fast as they could for the junction where heavy blast doors were starting to close.
“No!” Luke yelled, reaching for it and Veers may have imagined it, but they seemed to stall and slow.
He shoved Luke through the gap, and Piett practically flung Leia through after him. Veers received a shove from his friend and then the Captain toppled on top of him as the heavy doors clanged shut behind them, sealing off the corridor. Water washed around them but this area had been made for this—it was a security feature to be able to cut off various parts of the fortress in the event of attack.
Which meant that their presence was known.
Veers shoved Piett off, fury warming him despite his cold and soaked uniform.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snarled. “Don’t you dare save me ahead of yourself, Firmus. Ever.”
Piett glared back. “I’m smaller, Max. I knew I would have the more likely chance of getting through a tighter space.”
Well.
It was logical. But the thought of losing Piett to an awful death like that had his blood up.
“Be angry at me later,” the Captain told him with that grin he wore when there were no more karks to give and he would do what he must to survive. “We need to get out of here.”
Veers blew out a breath and took Luke’s hand once more.
“This way,” the young princess insisted, pointing in the opposite direction. The General raised an eyebrow at Piett. He shrugged.
“Children of Lord Vader. I’d tend to trust their instinct.”
They were still ten , Veers thought, and not trained .
But he nodded and Leia gave Piett a very pleased look as she tugged the Captain’s hand in the direction she’d indicated.
They had only been moving for two minutes when a door hissed open unexpectedly on Piett’s right and he was tackled to the floor as a squad of Imperials sped out.
They were armed with weapons that resembled javelins, but with wicked blades on both ends. Veers realized that blasters down here would be a bad idea in these plasteel corridors. He risked it anyway, making sure of his shots and took two down without missing.
Piett was struggling with another, both of them fighting for the javelin weapon. Leia flung herself on the left arm of the Captain’s assailant and the man snarled, flinging her off and swinging the weapon to slash her calf—a spray of red spattering the plasteel wall.
She screamed and Luke ran for her. Veers cast caution to the wind and launched himself at the other men as Piett used the distraction of his opponent to wrench the weapon from him and gut him like a fish. He didn’t even pause as he rolled from the body, coming up with a smooth twist and a face that promised death.
There was something in those nature holovids that played in medical offices, that really nailed the situation, Veers thought as he grasped the head of one man and broke his neck with a sharp twist. The pack would protect the young with astonishing force even against much larger and stronger predators.
He recognized that in himself in this moment and didn’t mind in the least.
Piett had two of the troopers at bay, driving them back with such speed and ferocity even Veers would have been wary of taking him on. This then was the face of the pirate hunter. The man who hunted spice runners and slavers without remorse or regret.
No being in the galaxy would get a reprieve from Firmus Piett if they were deliberately hurting children.
The Captain ducked under the whirling staff of one and sliced his leg open before he came up to thrust with the other end of the javelin and pierce the heart of the second man who gurgled and then slid off of the blade to land bonelessly on top of his dying companion.
Veers shared a brief look with Piett and then his friend had dropped the weapon and skidded to his knees beside the Princess who was leaning against the wall with Luke holding her tightly.
“Let me see, sweetheart, let me see,” he said urgently, moving her hands from her wound.
*************
It hadn’t cut an artery, thank the Force. Piett wished for a medkit, but they had traveled very lightly for this mission. He looked over at Luke and motioned.
“I need your vest, Luke,” he said, keenly aware that more attackers could be coming any moment. Veers stood tense and ready above them. The boy was sharp on the uptake and shrugged out of his coat to whip his vest over his head before putting his coat back on. Piett tore it and wrapped it tightly around the wound. The Princess made a small sound of distress but she bore it like the champion she was.
“It’s going to be all right, my dear,” he murmured. “You’re going to be fine.”
Walking was out of the question though.
“Luke,” he said, holding his blaster to the boy. “I need you to hold this for me. Do you know what to do?”
He ignored Max’s incredulous huff as the blonde head nodded. Piett had seen the boy on Tatooine. He’d watched him train on Naboo as Piett recovered from his injuries. This small person had seen more action than many trained troopers.
He turned to the dark haired Princess and wiped her tears with his fingers, then cupped her delicate face.
“I know it hurts, darling,” he told her. “But I am going to get you out of here. I made a promise.”
Her large brown eyes held his and then she reached for him and he lifted her up. Her arms came around his neck firmly and she rested her head on his shoulder in the crook of his neck.
“Ok,” Veers said, taking point. “Let’s go.”
It was an eternal journey—torturous in how slow it felt—as they made their way through the fortress. But the uncanny ability that Luke had for finding the way or sensing when the enemy was approaching saved them untold times.
And at last they reached the deck level which was open to the vast sea. Piett was coated in sweat, but he was glad of his thick uniform against the chill air coming off of the waves.
“There,” he whispered, indicating the open sided shuttle. “That one.”
“Getting to it with these two is going to be a treat,” Max answered softly, tucking Luke close against his side. They were in the shelter of a large stack of crates, the same dull green shade as an Imperial uniform. Piett glanced around and an idea began to form.
“That grav sled over there,” he said pointing. “If you get it, Max and bring it here…I imagine we can load one crate on it between us.”
He raised the lid of the crate closest to himself. It was mostly empty. A few small boxes lay within. It could easily fit two small children such as the ones with them.
Leia, despite her injury, was quick on the uptake.
“You want us to hide in that?” she hissed quietly in his arms. “What if it falls?”
“You’re going to have to trust us, Princess,” he told her. “There’s no other way and we don’t have time.”
“I don’t like it,” she stated, looking up at him and he could see this little mite doing her best to display calm when he could see the terror in her eyes.
“It’s just from here to there,” he pointed, holding her close. “You’ve been incredible already and I know it’s not fair, my dear. But we must ask you both to be brave again.”
She breathed out heavily and he couldn’t help hugging her and patting her back. It was so impossible what had been required of these children. And they had risen above it all.
“Promise you’ll try to get Ben too?” she murmured into his chest.
“I promise,” he assured her, because he did indeed have to try and reach Kenobi and Vader.
“Now, Max,” he whispered and Veers rose, straightening his uniform and moving with casual confidence to the grav sled. While he did so, Piett slid the lid back completely and helped Luke clamber in. Then he lifted Leia in carefully and grasped the lid again. Her hand reached up in silent appeal and he gripped the tiny fingers.
“My life for yours, Princess,” he promised. And then replaced the lid.
Veers returned without incident, and they lifted the precious cargo onto the gravsled. “I’ll control it,” Piett murmured, rising and snagging a rain slicker to cover the blood stains on his uniform. “You’re a General after all. Mustn’t get your hands dirty.”
Max’s snort of derision as they set off toward the shuttle nearly had Piett smile, but he controlled it. Smiling was not the sort of thing one did on the Fortress Inquisitorious.
He tapped the controls that lifted the gravsled level with the open side of the shuttle and he shoved the crate aboard before hauling himself aboard as well and making his way to the cockpit.
And then things became karked.
“General? This shuttle is in use, sir. Can I help you?”
Piett watched, his heart in his mouth, as Veers turned to the hard faced lieutenant. The man was holding his blaster rifle in ready position no doubt due to the heightened alert within the base.
“Change of plan. I need this shuttle, Lieutenant,” Veers replied with cold authority. “I’ve cleared it with central command.”
“I’ll need to verify that, sir,” the man said, flicking his commlink.
“Of course,” Veers said with an impatient wave of the hand. His friend was very good. “But be quick. This is miserable weather.”
Piett began start up procedures with the time Max had bought him. The lieutenant began to speak with his counterpart and then looked to Veers.
“What was your name and ID number again, General?” he asked.
“Veers,” Max said and punched him in the face, neatly snagging the rifle as the man went down. “The rest isn’t important. Go, Piett!” he called, swinging up into the shuttle and sliding the side door closed as Piett lifted off the deck.
**************
Leia looked up as light broke over them and the face of the General looked down. She could feel that they were in flight as he lifted her out and then reached for Luke.
“Let’s get you strapped in,” he said tensely and lifted her in his strong arms to carry her to the cockpit where he strapped her into the seat behind the Captain with the kind eyes. Luke sat beside her and the General flung himself into the co-pilot’s chair.
“They’ve called in TIEs!” he snapped looking at his screen on the control panel.
“Yes,” the Captain answered, turning the shuttle. “We have about five minutes.”
Something loud shook the shuttle and the Captain flung it sideways. “And there’s the fortress emplacements!” he added. Leia stared out the viewport ahead as they climbed up the side of what appeared to be a giant conical tower rising from the ocean.
“Ben…!” she began, but the Captain nodded without looking back.
“Yes indeed, Princess. And if he went after your father they would have headed up to these levels. There’s supposed to be a private landing bay for the Emperor…”
“There!” the General interrupted as the Captain flung them away from another burst of laser fire.
“What the hell…?” the Captain asked and Leia exchanged a look with Luke. They weren’t supposed to use language like that. Adults always had double standards about that.
But as she watched she could see why the Captain was puzzled. Two figures were dangling from the edge of the landing platform and one was holding the other with one hand.
“Ben!” she screamed, recognizing the one gripping the edge of the platform with one hand while holding someone else by the other hand.
The Force hummed about her and she glanced to Luke. To the brother she’d only known about for five days.
He nodded. “Father,” he said. Everything in her rebelled at the word. She had a father! And a mother!
The General undid his restraints.
“Keep her steady, Piett,” he said, making his way back to the hold. Leia realized what he was doing and the Captain cast a worried glance over his shoulder as he banked carefully to bring their shuttle as close to the dangling figures as he could.
A fall from this height was certain death.
The door slid open on the side and the General hooked an arm in the crash webbing before reaching for the man dressed in black.
Tense seconds passed and then the man seized the General’s arm and landed hard on the deck of the shuttle.
“Two minutes!” Piett yelled back as the man in black rolled to his knees. Ben was still out there. And then to Leia’s horror, his hold slipped and he began to fall.
“Obi-Wan!” the man roared and flung out a hand.
Ben stopped in mid air and then slowly floated toward the General who grabbed his arm and pulled him in. The Force was powerful all around Leia. Never had she felt it like this. She watched as the man Luke had called ‘father’ held Ben while the General closed the shuttle door.
“Here they come!” the Captain exclaimed and Leia whipped her attention back out the view port to see numerous TIE fighters streaming toward them.
“Help him,” the man said, thrusting Ben toward the General and staggering up to the cockpit past Luke and Leia.
“I’ve got this, Piett!” he snapped. Swiftly the two men changed places and the Captain took the co-pilot’s seat.
“Three more on your four o clock, my Lord,” the Captain said, and Leia remembered that her father was Lord Vader.
No. Bail Organa was her father.
There followed a breathless and terrifying chase as Lord Vader did incredible things with the shuttle which included impossible dives and turns to draw some of the TIE fighters into the line of fire from the fortress.
Then he tore into the atmosphere, the shuttle straining and rattling around them as the TIEs pursued. Leia and Luke clutched their seats for dear life, their teeth clicking as they shook with the ship. At last, they burst into the starry expanse of space.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Vader growled as red fire lanced around them and he twirled the shuttle again.
“Kark’s sake,” the Captain muttered, gripping the control panel.
And then…
The pull of lightspeed.
There was a long quiet pause as the stars streamed quietly around them.
It was the Captain who moved first.
He blew out a breath and unbuckled, turning to her.
“We have a medkit, my dear,” he said, face strained. “Let’s see about treating your wound properly.”
“Ben!” Luke exclaimed, squirming out of his harness and dashing for the hold.
Leia couldn’t walk and so appreciated the Captain, who lifted her as though it was natural, and carried her to the hold.
“You’re safe now, Princess,” he told her quietly. “We’re going to find your parents.”
She thought of how fierce he’d been. How he’d fought for her when the bad men had hurt her.
“What will you do?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth twitched as he set her carefully on a seat and knelt before her.
“That is a very good question,” he replied, but it wasn’t really an answer.
The General was bending over Ben who lay on the floor looking white and sick. He was finishing a bandage around Ben’s leg and he looked up as they entered.
“Ben!” Luke exclaimed, plopping himself down by the man’s head and reaching for his hand.
“Some bad electric shock my readings say,” the General commented to Ben. He looked up at Leia and his stern eyes softened. “You’ll need the antibac shots for her, Firmus. Here’s a painkiller.” He handed two hypos to the Captain who looked up at her.
“May I give you these, sweetheart?” he asked and Leia nodded. He applied them to her shoulder and then shook out a medical blanket which he draped around her shoulders as he began to unwind Luke’s ruined shirt from around her leg.
And then Lord Vader joined them. Ben watched him enter the space with exhausted eyes while Luke looked rapidly between them.
“You…saved me,” Ben rasped. “Why?”
Leia could feel everyone’s tension at this very direct question. Piett’s hands paused in removing the bloodied fabric and then he resumed, lifting proper bacta bandaging and cleaning solution from the medkit.
“I could ask you the same,” Vader replied at last, seating himself wearily across the hold from Leia. Keeping himself apart from them all.
“The Emperor?” Piett asked, glancing over to Lord Vader as he wound new bandage on Leia’s leg.
“Wounded but alive,” Lord Vader said harshly, though Leia knew he wasn’t upset with the Captain, but himself. “Left us as you saw and made his escape.”
Then his eyes met Leia’s directly for the first time as Piett finished and rose to sit beside her while the General covered Ben with more blankets and wadded his own jacket up beneath Ben’s head.
“Hello, Leia,” Lord Vader said softly. “I’m…I’m Anakin Skywalker. Your father.”