'Sir? It appears that we're receiving a transmission for a surrender from a nearby ship?'
'What?'
Grand Moff Tarkin took quick steps from the front of the control room to the sunken workstation. The workman that delivered the surprising news looked up from his screen with pinched eyebrows. He tried not to shrink under the man's large, piercing eyes and read over the transmission a second time for clarity.
'An x-wing, sir. It's waiting for clearance to enter the hanger to be taken into custody?' the workman said in a confused question.
'That's impossible. We've only just launched the attack,' Tarkin walked back to the windshield to peer out into space. 'Those rebel scum have barely even put up a fight!'
He almost felt insulted. The man stomped back towards the windscreen and peered to the right.
Besides the brooding planet of Yavin 4, Tarkin saw the rebel ship that was hovering in their airspace. The man was stumped at the quick surrender, but when he squinted to peer into the cockpit of the x-wing, he grew confused in a different sense.
It was not Senator Padme Amidala that was initiating a surrender on the Resistance's behalf, but it was a singular man sat in the pilot seat.
Perhaps a low-ranking rebel had been sent to negotiate. Perhaps the senator wouldn't miss such an irrelevant member of the Resistance, and had chosen to risk the man's life in an attempt to call off the Empire's attack.
'Should I clear him to enter, sir?' the same workman asked his superior. His question made Tarkin turn back to the sunken station, and he remembered his authority over the operation.
If the Resistance were surrending already, then Tarkin's victory was in sight.
'Yes. Have a team standing by and tell them to act with extreme caution.'
'Yes, sir.'
---
The star destroyer's leader marched towards the hanger. With two armed stormtroopers behind him, Grand Moff Tarkin made his entrance with his shoulders squared and a hanging scowl on his gaunt face.
Confronting anyone from the Resistance was an opportunity for an interrogation, and the haunting man was the best at the job. Despite his confusion at the quick surrender, Tarkin would ensure that he would extract every last bit of information from the rebel scum.
Whatever the Resistance were playing at, Tarkin was still adamant on proving his capabilities to the Emperor.
As he arrived at the hanger, Tarkin and his stormtroopers headed towards the impounded x-wing. Mechanics had been ordered to search the ship for any threat of explosives, while a squadron of stormtroopers stood with their restrained prisoner. With their blasters aimed and at the ready, the soldiers in white armour surrounded the man who was held at his biceps.
'The ship's clear, sir. Nothing onboard,' a maintenance worker called as Tarkin stopped in front of the rebel.
The leader of Yavin's invasion eyed the man in a white buttoned-coat that was tied with a utility belt. Tarkin sneered at the sight of the ponytail at the back of the man's head and the unmoving face of dark eyes and tight lips.
'He was carrying these, sir,'
Tarkin looked from the prisoner to the squadron leader. In the white and black armoured hand, were two silver cannisters. The man had spent enough time with Darth Vader to know what the weapons of Jedi looked like. He despised the Jedi almost as much as the Sith, but the circumstances made Tarkin question his prior vow to destroy all Jedi at the orders of the Emperor.
'Ah, a Jedi has been sent to issue the rebels' surrender?' Grand Moff Tarkin looked back to the prisoner with a smug look. 'Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Sent to do the dirty work for the captain-'
'I'm not issuing the Resistance's surrender.'
The squadron of stormtroopers looked at each other through their helmets. Their superior's grey eyebrows shot up and the Jedi stood with his dark eyes centred on the tall man.
Tarkin noticed how a sickly grey stained the skin surrounding the man's eyes, and the Jedi didn't hold the light and peaceful aura that all Jedi carried. This Jedi, although carrying two light lightsaber handles, was troubled, and was not the typical warrior of the light side of the Force.
'Then why have you willingly offered your own surrender?' Tarkin said, using his experience as a general to analyse the strange Jedi.
Could this Jedi be some sort of decoy? Were the Resistance staging a distraction? What was at play here?
But when the Jedi spoke, Grand Moff Tarkin was thrown off completely.
'I'm offering myself to Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. I wish to be transported to them as a prisoner.'
---
Darth Vader hadn't expected to receive a transmission from Grand Moff Tarkin. From what the Emperor had said, the Sith apprentice assumed that the man was only reporting to his Master on the invasion of Yavin 4. But the hologram of Tarkin's figure sat on the transmission pad in the Death Star's control room, and his request to speak to Vader had come as a surprise to the masked man.
'The Jedi wishes to be transported to the Death Star. Why, I do not know, and he refuses to answer any more questions,' Tarkin informed, his hologram form putting his hands behind his back. 'I assumed that with your history with Jedi, that you would know why this man has offered his surrender and wishes to be brought forth to the Emperor.'
'Who is this Jedi? What is his name?' Darth Vader rushed with a sudden urgency.
Vader hadn't forgotten about his last encounter with Jedi. Obi-wan Kenobi's alliance with the Resistance was unfavourable, but Vader's perspective had changed.
When he battled his ex-Master in the tunnel, Vader was prepared to kill the man who had led him towards the dark side. He would have administered the final blow without feeling guilty at destroying his ex-Master. The Sith thrived off of revenge and hatred, so there was no reason for Vader to hesitate in his acts.
But Darth Vader was fading, and Anakin Skywalker was returning. The prison that held Anakin was weakening, and Sol and her children's presence had changed the Sith apprentice's values and priorities. While Vader powered the black suit and spoke through the black mask, Anakin spent most of his time worrying for the lives of his children and their mother.
And if Obi-wan was offering himself to the Emperor, then Anakin's deepest fears had come true. If Sol and the two children were on Yavin 4, and Tarkin had launched the attack on the Resistance's base, then Anakin had to force Vader to act.
'The Jedi is going by the name of Revan Shan. He has separated from the rebels to offer himself as prisoner.'
Darth Vader paused in his inner turmoil. He was confused at first, as the name 'Shan' hadn't crossed his mind in a while. He remembered throwing the dark-haired man into the ice wall of the Hoth rebel base, and he remembered the dislike he had for him while in the Jedi Order.
Anakin always found it strange that Sol was so close to Revan. When Anakin would interupt their conversations in the temple halls, he loved to see his affect on the Shan. Revan would always leave in a hurry from the Skywalker's intimidating stare, and Anakin had never been any different towards him.
Jealousy had been the centre of Anakin's dislike for Revan. But when Vader took control, and the Jedi Order fell, Revan Shan was merely a pest that kept turning up.
'Revan Shan... I have encountered this Jedi before,' Darth Vader said, the Anakin inside of him simmering down. 'This is an abnormal move from the Resistance if there is something greater at play. I will inform the Emperor of this. Keep the Jedi under your surveillance until further notice.'
'Yes, Lord Vader.'
Before Moff Tarkin's hologram fizzled, Vader noticed the irritation on the gaunt man's face. Vader didn't care for the conflict that once rumbled between him and Tarkin. But to see the hologram stand in silence after Vader's orders, the Sith wanted to chuckle at the man's childish antics.
---
'Master, Tarkin has delivered some unusual news from the Yavin system.'
In his private quarters on the Death Star, Emperor Palpatine sat in a grand chair in front of the star-filled black of space. The window behind him occupied the entire wall and the Emperor was doused in the absence of light as he faced the large room. Workmen and stormtroopers were forbidden from disturbing the Emperor in his quarters, hence why his own apprentice was kneeling in front of him with his head bowed.
'What is it, my apprentice?' Emperor Palpatine's weathered throat churned out his croaky voice.
'It appears that a Jedi from the fallen Order has offered himself as prisoner,' Vader said, his arm leaning on his bent knee and his neck craning his mask downwards. 'Revan Shan has requested to be brought to you.'
'Shan? Hm, how peculiar.'
The Emperor's yellow eyes peered down at Vader. His blackened fingers tapped at the ends of his armchair and the man behind the mask looked through his eyelashes at the way they moved.
Since the change in Vader's signature, he noticed the small, sinister things in the Emperor's appearance. The fierce red around the decaying man's irises unsettled the Skywalker inside of the Sith, and the gaps in the Emperor's teeth sent a ripple of disgust through Vader's burnt body.
'I sense something in the Force...' Emperor Palpatine said, his eyes sliding shut to feel the swirls of the dark side. 'Something is growing. Something light, and something dark.'
Vader hoped that the light that his Master sensed wasn't the children that had come to Vader's knowledge. It was obvious that Sol had been hiding her and the children's Force signatures. But as the Emperor said, something dark was lingering in the Force, and perhaps the Emperor's power was growing with it.
This scared Vader, as the only advantage he had over his Master, was his strength with the Force. If Vader wanted to continue with his plan, then he couldn't let the Emperor grow any stronger.
'Bring this Jedi to me. Order Tarkin to send him guarded, and I will interrogate this "Shan"', the Emperor said, making Darth Vader raise his helmet.
'Yes, Master.'
Vader rose from his knee and turned away from the Emperor. His cape whipped at his movement, and he headed towards the door. The man was also curious about Revan's surrender, but it didn't cease his thoughts about Sol and his children.
Maybe when the Emperor interrogates Revan, Tarkin would halt in his attack on the Resistance base. That would leave Vader time to articulate his plan, which centred on keeping Sol and his children safe from the Emperor's evil.
---
The green and grey starfighter left the Dagobah system. R2 was secured in the wing and his domed head swiveled around in space. He eyed the nearby planets and moons with his beeps translating onto the screen in the cockpit.
'What's your plan, Sol? Don't you remember Obi-wan's rescue mission? Padme was worried sick for you, and you're heading right back into the fire,' R2's beeps appeared on Sol's controls. She glanced down at them, before her attention was drawn back to the stars in front of her.
'Something's different this time, Artoo. Something's changed in Vader,' Sol said into the microphone.
When Sol escaped the star destroyer's hanger, she saw the grimace on Vader's face. The yellow had faded from his eyes and there was a churn of pure emotion on the features of Anakin Skywalker.
When Sol escaped the star destroyer's hanger, she saw the grimace on Vader's face. The yellow had faded from his eyes and there was a churn of pure emotion on what was once Anakin Skywalker's face. These weren't the emotions of Darth Vader, they were the emotions of a Jedi that was buried inside him.
When Sol and Vader were in his personal training room, Sol had seen the first sign of change in him. The lustful and conniving Sith disappeared, and the emotional Anakin had broken through.
'I can't... I can't leave...'
'It's too late. I've... done too much-'
Sol had heard Anakin's voice, not Vader's. The grief from his sins had seeped through the iron bars that kept Anakin at bay. The mention of a life away from violence, war and the Emperor had brought Anakin out, and it installed hope in Sol.
'How can you be so sure? Master Ani did some awful things... you think that he could really change after all that he has done?' R2 said. The droid didn't want to be so negative, but he had experienced a great deal of loss and disappointment as Anakin Skywalker's personal droid. He had watched Sol suffer from Anakin's descent, and he didn't want to watch her, or her children, suffer anymore.
'I do, Artoo. I don't know, I just... have a feeling.'
Sol wanted to believe Master Yoda's last words. Satele's years of repeating Sol's destiny couldn't have been for nothing. Everything that had happened was because of the greater destiny, and Sol was beginning to understand how and why.
The Hoth base attack, Sol's capture, Luke and Leia ending up on the star destroyer with Ahsoka and Revan, it all lead to Vader's change. These were all events that would bring balance to the Force with the destroying of the Sith, and the return of the light.
'I've always thought that there was still good in him, Artoo,' Sol said with her hands clutching the controls, and her eyes staring into the endless reaches of space. 'Obi-wan said I was naïve, and I was for a while. But now... I think I can bring him back. I think that if he knew that Luke and Leia were waiting, and that the Emperor could be defeated, then he could come back. He could be Anakin again.'
'If that's possible, then I hope that you're right about him, Sol. I really do.'
---
Revan was docile and cooperative during his escort to the Death Star. The ship that transported him from the star destroyer carried a squadron of stormtroopers, and they kept their blasters aimed at the dangerous Jedi. But the precaution was unnecessary, as Revan Shan listened to every order with the upmost submission.
He expected to be greeted by the man that he had set out to kill. Revan kept his silent composure while in the presence of a stormtrooper squadron, but when he didn't sense the Sith's signature in the hanger, the man sagged in disappointment. His plan needed patience, and if he were to destroy Darth Vader, he needed to time his acts precisely.
In Force-restraining cuffs, Revan was led out of the hanger and towards an elevator. He remained stoic as the squadron surrounded him in the cramped space and the feeling of passing countless floors ate at his stomach. There was a wave of nausea, but when he thought about Serrina, he pushed past it for the sake of avenging her.
Revan was escorted out of the elevator and brought to a singular hallway. There were no turns or branching corridors that led to other parts of the space station. The lights were dim and the floor was tiled, and Revan walked down its length until the squadron paused behind him.
He stopped at their actions and inched his chin over his shoulder. The Jedi watched the soldiers pile back into the elevator waited for the sliding door to seal them inside. When the elevator left the floor, Revan was alone in the long, quiet hallway.
The Force was thundering with the dark side of the Force. Revan breathed in the thick air and felt the sinister presence of Emperor Palpatine nearby. The black flame was hard to ignore in the spiritual realm, but Revan couldn't help but focus on the other presencet that simmered beside it.
Darth Vader.
He was waiting with the Emperor, and Revan didn't hesitate to continue towards the door at the end of the hall.
---
Sol's original plan was to go to the core, where she had last seen Vader on Thrawn's star destroyer. But then she remembered the last time she spoke to the Chiss, where she heard about the grand Death Star
Before Sol escaped, the Emperor wanted Darth Vader to transport her to the new space station called the Death Star. This was where the Emperoer was waiting, Sol thought that it was only logical that Vader had left Thrawn's destroyer to reunite with his Master.
If Sol was right, then she needed to find the Death Star, which neither she nor the Resistance had located within the galaxy.
She had put the starfighter into hyperspace with no idea of where to go. Lights flew by in rushes of colours and Sol thought about where the space station could possibly be.
She assumed that it wouldn't be on the Outer-Rim, as such an important vessel needed to be central in the galaxy. It would also make it too close to where the Rebel Alliance dwelled, putting it at risk of an attack.
It could be in the core, but it was a dense part of space with planets and moons. They would all have their own gravitational pull, and having such a large space station in the centre of the galaxy could be fatal. There was only one part of the galaxy left to search, and that was the Mid-Rim.
The Mid-Rim was central, but was sparce in planets. It had enough space for a space station, and could be reached by destroyers across the galaxy. So, with R2 searching the area with his scanners, Sol headed towards the Mid-Rim after moments in hyperspace.
'Sol? There's something strange on my map,' R2 called from the wing. Sol looked out to the droid before looking down to her controls where her screen showed R2's map of the Mid-Rim.
'Between Onderon and Mandalore, there appears to be something that I don't remember ever seeing on a map before.'
R2 was right. Sol had studied many maps in her time with the Order and during her short time with the Resistance. She knew of Mandalore, and of the planet, Onderon, that sat on the Inner-Rim. The space between the two planets was where the Mid and Inner-Rim divided.
On R2's map, there was a small dot where the borders met. It was too small to be a planet and it was too large to be a floating asteroid.
'That has to be it, Artoo,' Sol said, the anxiety and anticipation hitting her chest. 'That has to be the Death Star. I'm pulling out of hyperspace, now.'
With a turn of the controls, the starfighter fell out of the colour tunnel and was plunged back into space. Sol and R2 were now in the Mid-Rim, and they needed to head towards Mandalore and where the Inner-Rim began. Based on the map that R2 transmitted from the wing, it should only be a few parsecs from their location.
The closer they flew towards the Inner-Rim, the heavier the anticipation weighed on Sol's chest. If she was going to help Anakin, she was going to have to face Vader. In doing so, Sol was going to face the Emperor. And after realising the role she played in the greater destiny, Sol wandered if her survival was included.
Sol had been guided through the clone wars, the fall of the Republic, and the reign of the Empire with a great deal of luck. But what if, after fulfilling her destiny as the light to guide Anakin to his destiny, Sol's journey ended?
She didn't want to think that her end was near, but after watching Master Yoda fade into the Force, perhaps it was her time. She would become one with the Force, and once Anakin was saved, and the Emperor was gone, would there be any need for her?
Luke and Leia would grow up with Obi-wan and would live happy lives on Tatooine, or pehaps they would relocate. The Empire would be gone, and they would be safe and free to go anywhere they wanted.
Ahsoka might return and help Obi-wan with their upbringing, or she would go on her own journey across the galaxy.
Padme could go back to the core and continue her duties as the representative for Naboo. There wouldn't be a need for a Resistance, so the woman could finally join the new government that wanted peace and cooperation.
And then there was Anakin. If he survived after destroying the Emperor, he would be free.
Everyone had their purpose, and after Sol filled hers, the Force could take her into its arms. She would be sad to leave everyone behind, but she couldn't fight the will of the Force.
Was finding the Death Star and saving Anakin the beginning of Sol's end?
'There it is, Sol! That's the Death Star!' R2 cried, and Sol was pulled from her dreaded thoughts to see the grey ball that they had been searching for.