On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CII

Vader nearly stumbled as he felt Luna's end of the bond flare back to life, unimaginable amounts of pure agony accompanying it. Upon recovering, feeding on his anger over her suffering, the Sith continued his march forward while mentally tapping the bond, trying to see if he could contact her, only to find Luna wasn't paying any attention.

He could tell that she was somewhere nearby, where, he did not know.

The Sith just hoped Ahsoka had already found her and they were on the move.

He was forced to block off the connection in order to keep her pain from distracting him, as much as he hated doing so.

~*~

Luna ran, or more like blindly stumbled, through the corridors. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.

That was, until she ran into the first round of stormtroopers. The Force screamed a warning right before the first trooper rounded a corner. Luna threw her lightsaber, allowing the Force to guide it. The action managed to behead several of the troopers before she summoned her saber back and managed to gather herself enough to sprint at them, deflecting shots as the Force instructed, not bothering to second guess any actions. That took energy and time that Luna couldn't bother to waste.

One of the last troopers shot her in her right shoulder. The girl cried out in pain, just barely managing to kill the last of them in one fatal slash. Another round of coughs racked her body, making her bend over double at their intensity while blood filled her mouth, forcing her to spit the metallic liquid out to clear the airway once more. She wanted to fall to the ground and rest, but what little rationality remained in her mind knew that if she gave in, the girl would not stand again. That said, Luna allowed what her unclear mind considered one moment rest against the wall.

The world was starting to swirl around her by itself. And the pain was creating never ending dots in the swirl of her vision.

The ex-Shadow finally started stumbling forward again. Part of her noticed that her lightsaber no longer looked like a saber, but more like a striped blue, red, and purple lightwhip waving in the wind.

Part of her, a detached section of her mind that was unaffiliated with nerve sensations and what little conscious thought remained, knew that seeing the world like that was very, very bad.

The rest of her didn't care, pressing forward, guided only by pure survival instinct.

Eventually she came upon a battle, not that she was completely aware of the fact it was a battle. Luna heard the blasts, but they were merged together and slow, unable to be processed by her mind. She saw the movement of the stormtroopers and the lasers, but it was slow and combined, coming across as numerous white blobs and colorful blures.

Luna also took note of the dark mass fighting the white, an aura of red appearing around it.

Needless to say, she was very, very confused. None of what she saw made any sense to her pain ridden mind. Luna simply stood there, staring, for Force knew how long, until she finally caught the attention of the nearest troopers, who proceeded to shoot at her.

The warning in the Force caused Luna to painfully drop (more like flop) to the ground. The blasts caught the attention of other troopers nearby.

It was at this point that Luna's pain clouded and confused mind figured out one thing: White + Colors = Bad.

The girl coughed out more blood as she struggled to stand. She wouldn't have known it, but there were at least a dozen blasters trained on her.

The Force, however, did, prompting her to throw her lightsaber before she'd even found her feet.

Luna, again running on sheer instinct that had been hardwired to run off the Force's suggestions and warnings over the years by Vader's side, compiled, allowing the Force to guide and put the necessary force required behind her practically blind movements.

The lightsaber arked around, killing those closest to her and eventually ending it's path in the chest of a trooper aways from Luna, near the other person that was fighting the stormtroopers. The saber's sudden appearance in turn managed to have nearly everyone's attention on the girl by the time she had by some miracle re-found her footing.

Luna couldn't have known what happened next, but the stormtroopers, seeing her in the state of what some might label the living dead: pale, covered in blood, and her gaze seeming far off yet hard, present, and possibly vengeful; added to the fact she was Eclipse and the other person that was there caused most to run.

They would deal with one, but not both. Especially when the girl looked like a cross between a zombie and vampire.

The few that stayed were rid of in moments by the man that had been fighting them alone previously.

Luna only managed to stay standing long enough to see the last blob of white fall, consumed by darkness. Whether it was darkness in reality, or that in her mind, she didn't know. Didn't care either.

The darkness took the pain in the same moment.