CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Darth Vorath heard the doors of his lair open and turned to see Sith Lords Nemesis and Ravage enter his throne room.
"I do hope you have the holocron," Vorath said coldly. "You known how much I distaste failures..."
"Fear not, master," Nemesis said. "We have retrieved the holocron."
The Sith Lord handed Vorath the cube-shaped holocron. Ancient text and drawings covered the glowing, jade surface of the cube, and it felt surprisingly comfortable in the Dark Lord's hand. With a touch, the holocron emitted a yellow-green light and the holographic image of a Krevaaki emerged.
"I am Bodo Baas," the image said. "Gatekeeper of the Tedryn Holocron." Its eyes seemed to narrow. "You are a Sith, and therefore are restricted from accessing any knowledge this holocron contains."
Vorath's eyes glowered at the gatekeeper from beneath his cloak. "Restricted? Nothing is restricted, at least not for long. It'll eventually be reached sooner or later."
Before the image of Bodo Baas could reply, Vorath turned off the holocron. Both Nemesis and Ravage could feel Vorah's anger as he turned to face them.
"How typical is it," the Dark Lord muttered, "that I finally have the holocron I've been scouring the galaxy for so long, only to find out that the information within it is restricted to anyone except a Jedi?"
When the two Sith did not reply, Vorath chuckled softly. "Yes, very typical, isn't it?"
The Dark Lord swung around and unleashed a barrage of lightning from his fingertips. Nemesis and Ravage's screams of pain echoed throughout the room.
"Find me a live Jedi Knight," Vorath growled, "and maybe I won't need to hang up your heads!"
The storm ceased and the two Sith Lords rose to their feet, painfully.
"It...it will be done, master," Nemesis panted.
"See to it that it will..." Vorath said quietly as his two apprentices limped out of the room.
* * *
The sky was burning.
When Lando had heard the officer say an entire Imperial fleet had arrived in the Coruscant system, he was expecting an Imperial fleet. Not the Imperial Fleet.
It's like they dropped every last Star Destroyer on top of us, Lando thought.
Wedge's voice called through Lando's comlink, starfighter fire sounding in the background. "General, we've lost contact with Green Squadron!"
"Stay calm, ol' buddy!" Lando shouted back into the communicator. "Eclipse and Inferno Squadron are on their way."
As soon as he had spoken those words, two Republic cruiser went down in flames...
* * *
The blazing fire danced in Thrawn's red eyes. And for once in his life, he did not like it.
True, it was originally his plan to send all Imperial forces to attack Coruscant, but that was before he discovered Emperor Palpatine was still alive. The Emperor would not have let this plan go through, at least not until he had rebuilt the Empire.
Then it hit him, as if a herd of bantha had invaded the Chimaera and trampled him.
Palpatine was trying to get rid of the remnants of the old Empire and replace it with a new, larger army. For the first in a long time, Thrawn felt a cold hatred burn inside his heart.
"Captain," he said to Pellaeon, " prepare an order to retreat."
Pellaeon turned to Thrawn and stared at him in disbelief. "But...but this is our moment!" he exclaimed. "If we turn back, we'd be betraying the Empire and the Emperor!"
"No..." Thrawn muttered. "The Emperor has already betrayed us."
Horror and shock covered Pellaeon's square face. "Sir...you can not be serious..."
"Name one moment when I haven't been," Thrawn replied. "Give out an order of retreat to Argen and the others."
* * *
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
One moment, Darth Sidious was poised to attack Toah and Leia. The next, he was on the ground, in pain. Toah did not know what had happened, but he did not care either. With the Dark Jedi and Sith momentarily distracted, he summoned his lightsaber from Goir's belt, and a blue blade ignited from its hilt.
Sidious cackled as he got to his feet. "You honestly think you can fight me, boy? I've ruled the galaxy for more than twenty years. How can a simple apprentice like you hope to defeat me?"
"He doesn't need to," a voice said, and Sidious went flying into his chair.
Toah turned to see Leia-with a lightsaber in her hand-clash blades with Goir and Kam Solusar.
"Go!" she shouted to Toah. "Find Luke and the others!"
Toah ran pass the defeated Sidious and the distracted Lumiya and Flint, and into the room he saw Luke drag Han and the others into."
* * *
"Kid, don't do this!" Han shouted as Luke force him, Chewbacca, and C-3PO into a cell already occupied by R2-D2.
The seemingly mindless Luke made no response, and was about to leave until Toah ran into the corridor.
"Master," he said, "I don't what the Emperor's done to you, but you have to snap out of it!"
The only reply he got was the sound of a red lightsaber igniting in Luke's hand. Toah sighed and raised his azure-colored lightsaber.
"Forgive me, master, for having to do this."
* * *
Admiral Argen could not believe what he was hearing from the captain of his ship.
"Retreat?" he exclaimed. "Has Thrawn gone mad?!"
"That's just what Pellaeon told me, sir," Kirus said. "I suggest we follow his orders and-"
"I am in command of this ship, captian!" Argen snapped. "Not Thrawn! We shall stay until Coruscant has been taken!"
Knowing it was useless to argue with his superior officer, Kirus stayed silent as the admiral carried out the attack.
* * *
"What is that fool doing?!" Thrawn growled as he saw the Vengeance continue to advance towards Coruscant.
"I don't know, sir!" Pellaeon said nervously. "I gave Captain Kirus the order to retreat!"
Thrawn gritted his teeth. "Get Admiral Kan-Rann on the line," he ordered Pellaeon. Soon, the profile of an eye-patched man appeared on Thrawn's viewscreen.
"Admiral Kan-Rann, reporting, sir," he said to Thrawn.
"Admiral, prepare the Tyrant and fire on the Vengeance!"
Kan-Rann's uninjured eye widened in surprise. "S-sir? I don't think I quite understand..."
"You will do as I say or suffer the same fate," Thrawn snapped.
The eye-patched admiral gulped. "As you wish, sir."
* * *
Toah went flying across the hallway and landed on the cold steel floor. Luke stood over him, his white eyes stating blankly at his former apprentice. As the scarlet blade moved closer to his neck, Toah looked into Luke's barren eyes.
"Please, master," he said. "Don't do this. Sidious is playing with your mind!"
Suddenly, the lightsaber retracted as the whole place shook. "Now what?" Toah heard Han mutter. The metal walls began to shift and the ceiling seemed to peel away, revealing machinery. When Toah turned back to Luke, the fallen Jedi was gone...
* * *
"What is going on?" Leia exclaimed as the whole room began to move.
Sidious laughed loudly. "It has begun, my dear! You see, this citadel is no mere sanctuary, but part of a fortress!"
The large window in which Lumiya and Flint had stood on now showed the rest of the fortress, instead of the Imperial City that had stood there earlier, which was beginning to rise from the ground.
"The end has begun," Sidious chuckled. "The end of the Republic!"
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