Fear No Darkness by Independence1776

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Chapter 8

B10, Darkness Darknees, captivity
G48, Horror, chains, prisons, and torture
O68, Horror, footsteps and whispers
O67, Writer's Block Smash, an unexpected person on the other side of the door

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Maglor stepped out of the ship formerly named Calanár and looked back at it as the ramp closed. The Rebels had repainted it: a black stripe on both sides to cover the flames and a matching stripe on the top of the ship. They’d also reprogrammed his transponder code and given him a fake ID, one that would hold up to casual scrutiny but he doubted would hold up to a deeper investigation.

He sighed, made sure his lightsaber was hooked onto his belt on the opposite side from his blaster, and stepped out of the docking bay. The humidity from the subtropical summer made him feel like he breathed through a wet blanket, but the heat was nice after a couple of days spent on a base in the middle of winter. It was a risk coming to an Imperial world, but the Rebel cell leadership had given him a tip on a contact here that could further help him hide.

Any help he accepted put people at risk, but knowledge of shadow ports and planets were the Empire hadn’t reached or if they had, didn’t care about-- dirtballs like Tatooine-- was necessary. And the Rebel cell hadn’t been able to give him any ports. He needed them to disappear into the underground economy of the Outer Rim.

He sighed and turned into the open-air market. He wasn’t due to meet the person until mid afternoon and it was only just after noon. He’d buy lunch, act the tourist, meet his contact, and leave the planet immediately after.

Maglor wandered the stalls, buying a pocket bread stuffed with greenery and some sort of mashed legume balls to eat as he did. He’d just finished it when the Force sung a warning and the jewelry stall owner became wide-eyed and silent. “Freeze,” a stormtrooper said behind Maglor. “Raise your arms over your head and turn around.”

Maglor did as instructed, glancing at the market. If it was just one trooper-- It wasn’t. The troopers formed a semicircle around Maglor, all facing outwards with their blasters pointed at the crowd. “If you resist, Jedi, they die.”

Maglor let the trooper disarm him and place him in stuncuffs. “How did you know?”

The trooper snorted. “The Imperial Security Bureau. Now shut up and move.”

Maglor remained silent, ready and waiting for the opportune moment. They hadn’t put him in a Force suppression collar or cuffs. That was their mistake. A bit of lock-picking with the Force, grabbing his lightsaber-- he’d be free. Free to flee again without the information he needed, but free.

The Force screamed a warning just before he saw out of the corner of his eye one of the troopers press a button on a small device.

*

Maglor’s head swam in echoing silence. He opened his eyes. He was no longer in the market, though from the construction of the room, he was still on-planet, probably in the Imperial Complex. He tried the restraints on the interrogation bed and gasped as a brief shock ran through them. The pain cleared his head a little… but the Force was utterly silent, without even a faint background hum.

Footsteps rang on the tile floor behind the interrogation bed Maglor was strapped to. He should have sensed another person in the room-- Force suppressants of some form, then, likely a collar from the weight on his neck. Unable to turn his head, Maglor could only stare at the front of the room, facing the door. From what he could see, a low cabinet lined the wall on his right, a tray with items on it barely visible on its surface. An interrogation droid, its syringe filled, hovered to the left of the door, in the corner by the ceiling.

Intimidation.

The Force suppression collar worried Maglor more. Without the Force, it would become much more difficult to resist interrogation. The Empire would wring every detail it could out of him.

That’s why he’d stayed on the Calanár while at the Rebel base, only talking with Lariesh and Tula as go-betweens. When the Rebel who had reprogrammed his transponder came on board, Maglor had locked himself in his cabin. He couldn’t give away what he didn’t know. And he knew the base would be evacuated after he left. The Rebels were as safe as he could make them.

Finally, the person walked to where Maglor could see him. Agent Denovar. “I must admit your Malda Coinon ID was impressive,” he said. “It still comes up as legitimate in the ISB database. But then, it was a legitimate ID. How did it feel knowing you lived when the rest of your kind did not, Jedi?”

Maglor didn’t answer, just looked steadily at him.

“The Inquisitor will arrive in six hours to bring you to Mustafar,” Denovar said. “I see no reason why I cannot begin your interrogation now. My responsibility is to stop the Rebel cell you saved.” He turned away to go to the tray of items and turned his head, “That was foolish. You could have remained hidden for years had you not--”

“Been a Jedi?” Maglor said. “I do not regret my actions.”

He didn’t, even now that they had landed him here. He had saved lives, ensured that a light in the galaxy wasn’t extinguished. Thatwas his purpose as a Jedi. Yes, he would have preferred to outlive the Empire. But he’d always known how remote that possibility was.

“You lived alone on your ship for years,” Denovar said. “It was remarkable how few personal items you had. Even knowing the Jedi preference for simplicity, it was austere of you to have only a few changes of clothing, a two-dimensional image chip, a holocube with pictures of your family, a bracelet with a gem missing, and your lightsaber. I assume the missing gem is in fact in your lightsaber?”

The ISB agent held up Maglor’s lightsaber. Maglor remained silent and the man put it down on the tray. “Pity you won’t cooperate. But why should I be surprised? Your uncle didn’t either. The Empire executed him this morning. Would you like to view the clip?”

He barely paused before pressing a button on a device next to the tray. A blue hologram appeared in the air in front of Maglor: a firing squad standing in front of Finarfin. Maglor didn’t close his eyes when someone off-image shouted the command to fire. His uncle had died for him; watching his death was the only honor he would be able to give.

Denovar turned off the vid after Finfarin’s corpse fell to the ground. “Your step-grandmother Indis and your aunt Findis have been transported to a labor camp. It was made clear that the Empire cannot trust the House of Finwë in any capacity. Pity. It makes ruling so much easier if we can leave the original government in power.”

“The Empire will fall. Palpatine will not remain emperor forever.”

“The Empire will be his lasting legacy,” Denovar said. “You Jedi have nothing left.”

“We have the Force.”

“How much help is it to you now?” He gestured at the droid, who slowly floated over.

The door slid open and a redheaded woman not in Imperial uniform entered. As the door closed behind her, Agent Denovar snapped, “What is the meaning of this?”

Maglor couldn’t help but grin when Mother answered by igniting her purple lightsaber. Agent Denovar didn’t even manage to remove his blaster from his holster before he was cut down and the interrogation droid bisected to land with loud clanks on the floor. Mother turned off her blade and went to the side of the interrogation chair. She pressed something and the chains snapped open. Maglor carefully stood and reached to the collar around his neck. He tugged but couldn’t remove it. “I think you need to cut it off.”

“Hold still,” she said. Her lightsaber ignited and hummed unnervingly close to his left ear-- and the collar came off.

The Force returned, trilling warnings and a greeting. “How did you find me?”

“One of the group had a vision.” Mother stepped to the side. “Is there anything you desperately need to grab from Evidence?”

Maglor grinned. “Everything of import is on the tray behind you.” He used the Force to grab his lightsaber while she put the image chip, holocube, and bracelet into a pouch on her belt, lingering only slightly over the bracelet. “Now where?”

“Follow me,” she said, holding her unlit lightsaber close by her body. “We only have a few more minutes before the security feeds return to normal operation.”

They ran from the Complex, joined by a teenaged Human girl with hair even redder than his mother’s and an astromech. Only when they reached the street did the alarms start ringing. But it was too late: they climbed onto a landspeeder and sped off down the street to the spaceport.

Maglor kept his mouth shut while they boarded Mother’s ship, escaped from the TIEs chasing them, and entered hyperspace. “A vision?”

Mother turned around in her seat. “Eärendil’s, actually. It was fairly clear for a vision, though we had a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly what planet this was. There are a lot of planets with palm trees.” She gestured at the teenager. “This is Direne, my apprentice, and her astromech Spot. She’s a slicer, which is how we’ve been able to stay away from the Empire’s attention.”

“How’d you meet?”

Direne smiled. “I was taking a shortcut through a spaceport, trying to lose the attention of a couple of stormtroopers. I… may have made unfortunate remarks about Vader.”

“Good. He deserves every one of them,” Maglor said and stretched with a wince. He didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious, but his muscles were stiff enough it could have been hours.

“I’ll show you to a cabin where you can rest,” Nerdanel said, standing. She took the pouch off her belt. “Here. I’m sorry we couldn’t save your ship.”

Maglor shrugged and tied the leather pouch on his own belt. “It was a place to live more than a home.” He wrapped her in a hug. “I thought you were dead.”

“You had to,” she said quietly. “And now you don’t.” She pulled away from the embrace. “We’ll be home in a couple of days. We have plenty of time to catch up between now and then.”

“Home?”

Direne smiled. “You’ll see,” she said and turned back to the navigation console. Maglor sighed and followed his mother out of the cockpit.