RISE AGAIN ─ star wars

VII. Long Live The Empire

Chapter Seven
Aylin

I haven't been to Mandalore since I was sixteen. I had escaped the same way Leera had, by sneaking onto an Imperial cruiser meant to drop off stormtroopers at their posts. At the time, I never thought I would come back here. At the time, I was kind of glad. I was leaving my past behind and I only wanted to look forward. But now here I am again.

I didn't know how I would react to seeing Mandalore again, if I would be sad, angry, or nervous, but when our stolen Imperial ship entered into the Mandalorian atmosphere, I found myself feeling numb. Seeing the scorched surface from the weapons testing, seeing the city on such strict lock down, seeing the streets abandoned because the Mandalorian citizens are trapped in their homes...I just felt my heart shut down. I couldn't handle what's going on here, if I tried to let it sink in, I wouldn't recover, and I needed my mind sharp and focused today.

After we successfully entered the city, Bo led us to a back entrance of the palace, one she probably knows of because of her sister. It was a servants entrance, though it looks like no servants have been working here because the halls they occupy are completely empty, as is most of the palace as we slowly sneak through it. It looks so hollow, so devoid of life just like the rest of Mandalore.

This is where my parents died. The thought hits me so suddenly and once it enters my mind I can't seem to get it out. My parents stood and watched as Bo's sister was murdered and then they were murdered themselves, along with Leera's father. It's strange to find myself in the place that set my life in motion. And it's strange to imagine what would have happened if my parents had been on a mission like Bo had, if they weren't in this palace during Death Watch's fight for control. Would they be alive? Would I have been raised by them and taught the same messed up ethics they believed in. I've asked myself these questions more times then I could ever count, but being here, in the place their lives ended...I somehow simultaneously feel closer and more distant from my mother and father than ever before.

Iris slips her hand into mine, giving me a look that tells me she knows exactly what I had just been thinking of. I give her a small nod and then try to refocus my attention to our task at hand.

Bo and Holly are searching for Gideon on the upper levels of the palace while Iris and I cover the lower ones. We're only traveling through the servant's hallways and once again timing our ventures out into the main halls appropriately based on the stormtrooper's rotation times. So far we haven't seen any sign of Gideon or anyone that might give us useful information, that is until we reach the floor below the throne room, then we hear a calm voice say:

"Even if you had been successful in retrieving the child, it may not have been enough."

Iris and I halt in the main hallway we had been walking down and run inside a supply closet to our left, straining our ears to listen to the conversation happening on the other side of the door.

"It's just as well that Kryze and her band found the child. They'll now think they've foiled our plans and stop chasing me around like hungry gundarks."

Gideon. I would recognize his voice anywhere.

The other voice continues: "Who knows how long it will take to find another subject, let alone multiple of them. He is running out of time."

He? Whose he? I press my ear closer to the door, hoping that hearing them clearer will help in understanding what they're saying, but they only grow more vague.