X-Men: A New Hope

Chapter Nine

Welcome to the final chapter! But not the final part. ;) Still an epilogue after this! Yes, only one. This only needs one. Enjoy!

End credits music on the side. :) Play when you get to the last part of Danielle's POV. :)

 

***

 

The Death Star, Yavin System

 

Luke locked the S-foils of his X-wing, then felt his throat clench when he looked out of the cockpit towards the Death Star. He shook his head. How in the name of mutants did they build something that huge? Over the comm connection him to the other pilots, he heard Red Two – Wedge Antilles – gasp in shock when he saw it, too. “Look at the size of that thing!”

“Cut the chatter, Red Two,” Red Leader snapped, and Luke couldn’t help but smirk. “Gold Leader, this is Red Leader. Begin your attack run.”

“I copy, Red Leader,” the voice of Gold Leader replied. “Gold Three, Gold Five, pull in.”

The three Y-wings pulled away from the cloud of starfighters that had now reached the Death Star and dropped down onto the surface. There was the spatter of laserfire, and flashes of green were seen. “Turret guns!” Gold Three yelped in shock and surprise.

Proximity alerts began sounding in the cockpit, and Luke looked down at his screens. “Red Leader, fights coming in,” he reported.

“I see them, Red Five.”

Luke took a deep breath, then braced himself for the firefight coming up. Somehow he knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

***

Down on Yavin 4, Leia had reached the same conclusion.

She leaned over the screen that the base was using to track the Rebel pilots’ progress, and she watched as the starfighters scattered to try and split up the attack group. She heard their voices throughout the base, shouting and yelling about backup. Her heart froze when she heard Luke’s startled yelp in surprise, then heard the voice of Red Three ask, “Luke, you okay?”

“A little crisped, but I’m all right,” Luke replied warily. “It exploded before it did any real damage.”

“None of us were anywhere near you, Luke,” Red Two told him just as warily.

Leia’s head shot up, looking around the screen at the other Rebels. They were just as confused as she was.

Are you really that naïve, Rogue?

Leia jerked when she heard the voice in her head, then she growled lowly, looking down. What do you want?

You still have Magneta’s mutation, don’t you? Use it.

Leia drew in a breath sharply when she realized what the Phoenix was saying. For once, thanks for pointing that out.

Just get done what needs to be done.

Leia looked down at the screen and closed her eyes, uneasily wondering how she was going to do this. She had never stolen a mutation and tried to use it several hours, let alone days, later. She remembered the feeling she had when she was trying to stop the walls from closing in on the five of them, the four other X-Men. She felt the magnetic grip in her head leading her towards the TIE fighters, and found a few that were getting too close to Luke for her liking. She reached out and grasped the fighters, then found the button she was looking for.