On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CI

Vader tried to wait patiently as Ahsoka got into position. It was a struggle. Every single centimeter of his being wanted to have already attacked. Luna was captured, possibly being or had been tortured, and he was expected to wait?

Their bond had been completely silent the past few hours and Vader couldn't even sense her. Even after she had left, Vader could at least reach deep into the Force and sense Luna was in general okay, but now....

Now their bond was silent. He hadn't felt her death, but it meant she was definitely cut off from the Force, most likely unwillingly.

Which meant she could be near the brink of death for all he knew.

The Sith Lord really did not want to be waiting. It was taking all of his self control to not move.

"I'm in position," Ahsoka's voice said through the comm.

"Took you long enough," he grumbled before marching into the open, heading straight towards the main entrance.

The Force felt oldly tense. Vader had the feeling that he needed to hurry.

~*~

Luna felt panic and fear grip her gut. She was going to die. Luna wasn't ready to die. Not now. There were so many things she had to live for.

The ex-Shadow's mind cleared even more as her adrenaline continued spiking, eons long evolution kicking in as survival took president over any pain and allowed her access to every sense but touch for the first time in what felt like too long. Survival instincts hardwired from birth paired with the years of training under Vader kicked in with a brand new intensity. Luna needed a way out. Now.

The feedback of the four senses she still had access to started pouring into her mind. Her ears informed her of a droid while her sense of the general space around her built from previous knowledge told her the head interrogator was in the corner shutting down the second droid. The two beefy men were of course still holding her down, though their grips weren't as tight as before, likely believing after the most recent torture she'd been put through that the girl had no energy left to spend.

It was going to hurt, but she'd be free if it worked.

The droid was getting closer.

Luna didn't waste another moment, rolling forward as her shoulder joints literally rolled around in their sockets and kicking the two men that were holding her in the heads, managing to knock one into the droid and free her arms.

As the girl had imagined, it hurt like hell.

The ex-Shadow somehow managed to force herself to continue without pause, managing to use her hands, now behind her back, to shove herself into a standing position. Luna then ran at the interrogator, sidekicking him in the stomach. The man bent over in pain just in time for his face to meet her knee.

Which again, hurt her. Likely even more than the man despite the face she'd definitely broken his nose. Thankfulling the adrenaline was taking the edge off. Slightly.

At least the fact the serum was still present in her system ment she wasn't about to pass out any time soon.

Luna jumped over her hands (more pain, everything was pain), moving them back in front of her, before grabbing the nearest weapon, a blaster from the interrogator's holster, and hurriedly shooting the three Imperials and the droid that had been about to kill her. The two of the three died instantly from headshots, but the interrogator was still alive having been closest and therefore receiving a shot that had been aimed more towards his abdomen. Luna was about to shoot the killing blast when she suddenly felt the (incredibly painful) prick of a needle before yet another serum entered her system. The girl turned, yanking the needle out of her neck in the process as she shot the not quite deactivated droid that had been hovering behind her.

The remaining interrogator began to laugh.

"You should have gone with the other droid. That poison is the most painful in existence. You'll be wishing you were dead long before you are," he cackled.

Luna didn't need him to tell her, her neck already felt like it was full of fire that was slowly spreading through her body. It was nearly, not quite, but nearly as bad as when Palpatine experimented on her. It didn't help that she had other injuries (all vying for her attention) and that the poison's normal level of pain was no doubt increased or about to be increased by the other serum's effects.

Part of Luna wanted to skin the man alive or gut him.

The reasonable part of her told her to move and run while her mind was still clear enough.

Luna shot the man again before taking back her lightsaber as well as her other blade and cutting off her cuffs. Never had she been so relieved to reconnect with the Force.

But it was hard to focus. The pain clouded her mind and the poison was already starting to affect her senses, distracting the girl and making her head cloudy. She stumbled forward, pulling on the Force to help her ignore some of the agony and lend her energy as she coughed hard, lungs recoiling from the beating the sudden action had put them through, and spat blood again.

If Luna planned on getting out alive, she needed to hurry.

She could only hope that Ahsoka was nearby.