On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CIII

Vader had been battling waves of troopers as he slowly continued forward for quite some time when Ahsoka finally commed him.

"I found Luna's cell, but she's already escaped. Keep an eye out," the Grey Jedi told him. "I'm going to follow the trail. See if I can find her."

Vader sent his acknowledgement and forcefully tried to not think about why there would be a trail for Ahsoka to follow and how hurt Luna must be to be so careless as to leave one.

The Sith continued forward, killing any who stood in his path. Eventually he reached a point where he was surrounded, not that would stop him. The adversaries were mere troops after all. Pure inconveniences and not challenging whatsoever.

It was because of this that Vader was distracted enough that he, like most of the troopers he was fighting, remained unaware of a presence behind him, until a lightsaber came flying through the room, beheading many an Imperial and eventually embedding itself in the chest of a Stormtrooper directly in front of Vader. The Sith Lord had never even seen the saber before, but he knew its owner as soon as he laid eyes upon the hilt. The lightsaber was slightly different when compared to the one that she had left with him, he noted upon summoning to his free hand. The hilt looked more silver than black now, and the saber itself was no longer red.... It was....white, if the Sith was guessing correctly. It was hard to tell with the red tint his mask gave.

Vader turned around, looking to a doorway, and there she was.

He was unprepared for the relief and joy that flooded him at seeing Luna. She was standing in the doorway, staring out at the room. She looked rather injured, but that didn't matter. Luna was alive and with him again.

And as far as Vader was concerned she wouldn't be getting hurt or going anywhere again anytime soon. He was going to keep her safe.

Subconsciously, the Dark Lord took note of the air around him becoming choked with terror. It seemed as though Vader and his apprentice's presence together created more of an impact on them than he had thought was possible. Those closest to open doorways, save the one Luna was in, retreated and only those closest to Vader stayed put, possibly to give their comrades time to run. They fell rather quickly, the Sith not wanting to waste anymore time and being doubly deadly with the addition of Luna's lightsaber. His apprentice, strangely enough, seemed oddly content to watch from the doorway.

Just as he finished off the last trooper (an action that happened in only a matter of seconds), Vader felt more than saw Luna lose consciousness and fall to the ground. He rushed over, quickly examining the girl to see how wounded she was, ignoring the skimpy top she was wearing, clearly a question for another time. Luna seemed to have several untreated blaster wounds that, despite having been cauterized upon impact, had opened up and resulted in lots of blood loss; many bruises on her midsection as well as internal bleeding; at least three of her ribs had been broken, one or more having punctured a lung; and, according to the Force, there was some type of wound on her back as well.

But all those things were not what Vader was most worried about. There was a small prick in Luna's neck. A dark color spread out like a web through the veins around it, crawling up her cheek and down her collar towards her heart.

Poison.

How dare they?!

Vader, despite his anger, took off his cape and gently wrapped his precious, injured apprentice in it before carefully picking her up, knowing Luna didn't have the time for him to go on a rampage. Her Force presence was beginning to weaken already. How had she even made it so far from the cell block in this state?

"Ahsoka, I found her."