The hanger of the Resistance base was tense. After Ahsoka's departure, the captain and lieutenant returned to the team that awaited the Empire's advance. The rebel ships had left Yavin 4 in their impossible mission to blow up the star destroyer, and it was up those in the base to fight off the troops. But morale was dwindling as they realised their average blasters were going to be pointless against an entire army.

Padme was on one knee with her blaster aimed at the tree line. Like her team, her heart pounded, and her hands grew clammy. The blaster's black surface was growing slick from her palms, and Padme had to remember her time as a targeted senator. She knew how to use a weapon, and she could protect herself, but against so many scout troopers, it seemed impossible to survive.

But she couldn't lose faith in the Resistance, or in Ahsoka. The star destroyer will be destroyed, and the Rebel Alliance will be saved. They just had to hold off the invasion until Mothma's reinforcements turned up, or until Ahsoka performed a miracle.

The trees rustled. White armour slinked past the large leaves and a breath of air was sucked into the Resistance's throats. C3-PO let out a quiet whimper from his corner when the rebels tightened their grips on their blasters.

As the tree line was broken, the captain forced her strength to her voice and called,

'Fire!'

Blasts released from the barrels and tree trunks were scorched. The Imperial army used the jungle as their advantage and knelt behind the tree line for cover. They aimed their own weapons of blasters and missile launchers and began firing into the base's hanger.

Blasts soared back forth and it wasn't long before soldiers and rebels started to fall. Cries of pain sounded as their wounds burned, and the rebels took cover on either side of the hanger. They hid around the corners and leaned out into the blaster fire to continue their defense. Their shots collided with armour and the jungle floor was filling with scout trooprs. But there were rows of soldiers ready to fill the spots of fallen Imperials, creating a continuous flow of blasts to cross the battlefield.

Padme pressed her back against the wall of the hanger. A Mon Calamarian leaned out into the firing line, but a blast burnt through his orange cranium. 

Padme held back a gasp as the rebel fell at her feet. In the large, absent eyes of the Calamarian, Padme saw her reflection that held a hanging jaw and a pale face. The blast left a burnt hole in the rubbery-looking skin, and Padme feared what a blast would do to her if she were hit.

'Oh, Ahsoka... please, hurry,' the captain mumbled to the ceiling, before leaning out to fire into the jungle.

---

Sol didn't want to leave Revan's body in the Emperor's chamber. But with Anakin's weight hanging on her side, and with her own injuries, there was no way that Sol would be able to carry the dead body through the ship.

It felt wrong to walk away from the energy well. Sol looked over Anakin's arm that was wrapped around her shoulders and grimaced at how Revan stared into nothing. His skin was covered in lashings from the Emperor's lethal volts, and his limbs laid unnaturally limp against the tiles. He didn't deserve to die, nor to be left alone after death, but Sol had no choice.

She pried her eyes away from Revan and continued to help Anakin to the grand staircase. She had helped him take off his long cape to prevent them from tripping on its hem, leaving the slouching man in his black, leather suit. Anakin's steps were heavy and slow, and he struggled to keep his pain-filled groans and grunts at bay. Even though Anakin leant against Sol, and climbed the staircase with her help, Sol feared their chances of survival.

'I need to get... to my quarters,' Anakin was able to say through his grunts. 'I can issue a self-destruct order. It'll send a signal to the whole galaxy that the Emperor is dead. But... we'll only have ten minutes to leave the hanger...'

'My ship is there. We could... we could escape before it destructs.'

Anakin said nothing and Sol tried to look at his face to understand his silence. She saw the scar through his eyebrow and his grimace, but nothing told Sol why Anakin chose to say nothing. Perhaps he wasn't sure if the Empire would listen to his order to self-destruct. But with the Emperor dead, and with his apprentice ordering to disperse, Sol thought that the Empire would follow the Emperor's righthand man's orders.

Sol helped Anakin out of the chamber and down the hall to the elevator. It was a relief to pause their walk as they waited for the elevator to rise through the Death Star. It let Sol adjust Anakin's arm around her shoulders, which made him wince.

'I'm sorry-'

'No, don't apologise,' Sol was surprised at Anakin's solid reply, and paused to see him glance away from her gaze. 'Please... you have nothing to apologise for, Sol.'

Something was strange about Anakin. Sol could see it. He was himself again, but there was a sense of grief in him. The Anakin Sol remembered was cunning and confident. There was no mission that was too difficult for him and he always had a plan of escape. Sol remembered how his brash and outlandish ideas got him into some tricky situations, but he took it in his stride, and would laugh about it along the way.

But the Anakin that hung off Sol's side was quiet and careful. He had just been electrocuted and Sol knew that he was in pain. But being with the dark side for so long mustn't have been the most pleasant, and all that had happened as Vader was in Anakin's memories.

The slaughter of younglings, the Jedi he had murdered across the galaxy, the planets he had raided in search of the Resistance, the countless people he had killed in search of Sol; they were all coming back. Vader's actions and atrocities were settling into Anakin's conscience, and they were more painful than the burns and wounds that littered his body.

The elevator dinged and Sol helped Anakin into the hall. The lights on the dark walls and flooring made it easier to maneuver, as the Emperor's chamber had been dimmed and hard for Sol and Anakin to find their direction. But Anakin's weight was starting to ache Sol's shoulders, and her cauterized wound was weakening her. She hoped they were nearing what used to be Vader's quarters so that they could rest before heading to the hanger.

'It's here...' Anakin said in a strained voice. Sol turned the two of them to face the door on the right and waited for him to type a code into the keypad.

The door slid open, and Sol was relieved to see that a bed sat in the corner. She waited to look around the private quarters and b-lined for the mattress, where she unhooked Anakin's arm from her shoulders and lowered him onto the edge. 

A sigh of relief sounded from his lips and Sol couldn't help but do the same as she lowered herself to the floor. She leaned her back against the wall and took the opportunity to look around the room. 

It was black, much like Anakin's attire. The bed was large with black sheets, and a desk occupied a corner and two walls. While resting, Sol looked at the cluster of droid and ships parts that covered the tabletop. She was never one for the mechanics of things, but Anakin always was. To see that even during his time as a Sith, Anakin's engineering traits had seeped through to Darth Vader's fingertips.

Once a tinkerer, always a tinkerer.

'General? This is Lord Vader. Come in, General,' Anakin said and Sol turned her attention to the man on the bed's edge. Anakin was hunched over a commlink that he held to his lips, and through his damp hair that hung in front of his face, Sol saw the exhaustion in his eyes. 

'Yes, Lord Vader?' a voice sounded from the device.

'The Emperor is dead, along with the Jedi. Execute Order 98 and contact all ships and troops across the galaxy to do the same.' 

'S-Sir, just confirming, did you say that the Emperor is dead, and the Empire is to disperse?'

'That is correct, General. The Galactic Empire is no more.' 

Anakin's eyes shifted to meet Sol's, and she felt a familiar leap in her stomach. To see Anakin's blue irises looking back at her, while he ordered the dismantlement of the Empire, was one of the greatest reliefs that Sol had ever experienced. It wasn't a dream or a fantasy while Sol hid away in the Tatooine desert. It was real, and Anakin was about to be by her side again. 

'I... I understand, sir. It was an honour serving you...'

Anakin didn't like to be reminded of his status in the Empire. He pulled the commlink from his lips and looked away from Sol. He wanted nothing more than to forget the past five years and start fresh, but he knew that he was asking for the impossible. 

Anakin wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sol. He wanted to meet the two children that bore his blood and his name, and live away from all the violence and suffering he had caused as Darth Vader. 

But would he ever be able to sleep peacefully? Would he ever be able to rest knowing that he changed the galaxy into a totalitarian empire for nearly six years?

'Attention, attention, Order 98 is in effect. This station will self-destruct in t-minus ten minutes. I repeat, this vessel will self-destruct in t-minus ten minutes.' 

Sol looked up to the ceiling as the robotic voice sounded throughout the Death Star. An alarm blared and the lights turned from white to red. The countdown to the space station's destruction had begun and the order had been sent out to every Imperial ship and squadron across the galaxy.

'We have to go,' Sol said. She pushed herself up against the wall to stand and went to Anakin's side as he rose from the mattress. He groaned and Sol took his arm over her shoulders to lead him to the door.

'Wait,' he called as he remembered something, and Sol stopped.

Anakin stepped away from Sol and forced his bionic legs to take him to his desk. Sol watched in alarm as he leaned one hand on the edge of the table to reach into its corner. From the red hues and blaring noises of warning, Sol couldn't concentrate enough to see what Anakin took into his gloved hand, nor did she see the red and beige circular device he slipped into his pant pocket. But when he turned to meet her halfway, and accepted her help again, Sol saw the silver cannister in his hand.

'You kept it,' Sol said in awe as she took hold of Anakin's waist. His arm returned around her shoulders, and hesitantly shared his weight with her.  

'I did... I don't know why, but I couldn't destroy it.' 

Anakin gripped the lightsaber that he had wielded as a Jedi. He had left the one that held the bled kyber crystal in the Emperor's chambers and needed a replacement. The cannister had travelled across the galaxy and had finally returned to its owner at the destined time. Anakin knew that it would be a breath of fresh air when he saw the blue blade and couldn't believe that he had wielded a red laser for so long. 

Sol and Anakin left Darth Vader's quarters and headed down the hallway. The alarm continued its ring, and the red doused the halls in a heavy air. Sol felt better knowing that they were heading for their escape, and even with the countdown descending, she was hopeful that they would arrive at the hanger on time.  

'L-Lord Vader!'

Anakin's head shot up from the tiles and Sol paused their walk. At the end of the hall, was a workman dressed in an Imperial grey uniform. He stood with wide eyes at the sight of Vader bare face and looked at the Jedi that was helping him stand. It was a sight that the workman hadn't expected to see on his way to the escape pods and his figure blocked Sol and Anakin's path.

'I-Is it true? Is the Emperor dead?' the workman stuttered. 

He was a young man that seemed baffled by the sight of Vader without his mask. But his innocent surprise  didn't help Sol nerves. Their pace had slowed and their journey to the hanger was stagnant. They had less than ten minutes to get to a ship that could carry the two of them, and Sol was not going to be on the space station when it exploded.

'Continue on your way to the escape pods, Officer. The Empire is no more,' Anakin said, forcing a strong and toneless voice. But his leaning stature against Sol didn't coincide with his voiced confidence, and the workman looked to Sol with creased eyebrows. 

'B-But, sir... the Death Star isn't even finished. Did you...' the officer stared at Sol with betrayal. 'Did you kill the Emperor? You... You Jedi scum! I-I need to call off the order-'

'Officer, stand. down,' Anakin urged with a wary glare.

Sol sensed something in the Force. She watched the frantic officer reach for the commlink on his belt as well as the attached blaster. With one hand still holding Anakin, Sol used to Force to call the commlink out of the officer's hand. It landed in her grasp, but the officer looked back at her in shock as well as anger. 

'How dare you! You have deceived Lord Vader with your Jedi mind tricks!' he cried and aimed the blaster. 'You despicable woman! You witch!'

The officer fired a blast and Sol was able to use the Force to block it with her hand. She disposed of the officer's commlink as the red lazer burnt a scorch mark into the wall. 

Another was fired, forcing Sol to pull her arm away from Anakin waist to block it. Anakin stumbled towards the wall and leaned on it as Sol grabbed her lightsaber. The officer began walking towards them and didn't shy away when Sol ignited her cyan blade.

'Long live the Empire!-' 

Sol didn't hesitate to swing her lightsaber across the officer's torso. His blaster's constant firing forced the Jedi to use her reflexes to block the attacks, and once he was close enough, Sol's weapon burnt through his uniform. The officer cried out in pain before he crumbled to the floor, the blaster flying into the wall's skirting. 

As Sol stared down at the dead Imperial, Anakin clung to the wall with his lips parted. He heard the sheathing of Sol's lightsaber, but he was absorbed in the sight of the deceased Imperial and kept hearing the man's final words in his head.

'Long live the Empire!' 

The Emperor may be dead, and Vader may be gone, but would the Empire ever die?

---

'Where have all these rebels come from?! When did we hear of a transmission leaving the rebel base?!'

'W-We must have missed it, sir!'

'The shields are failing!' 

The star destroyer's control room was chaos. They had nearly wiped out the rebel ships until the reinforcements appeared out of nowhere. The surprise ambush had thinned the number of Imperial ships in the battlefield and with the constant attacks on the shields, the star destroyer's defenses were failing. 

Grand Moff Tarkin stared out the windscreen in horror. His troops were falling one by one, and he watched the rebel pilots dance around the Empire like it was child's play. The star destroyer shook with the rebels' attacks to their shields and Tarkin was losing his composure. 

This wasn't meant to happen. The Resistance were meant to be crushed beneath his boot, not attacking his destroyer with ease.

'Sir, we've just received a transmission from the Death Star!'

'Good!' he whipped around with crazed eyes. 'Tell them to fire up the weapon! Blast this pathetic jungle-ball!'

'Sir...' the workwoman stood in front of him with a trembling lip. 'The Emperor is dead. Lord Vader has just initiated Order 98... We are to program the ship to self-destruct.' 

Tarkin froze, as did everyone else in the control room. Calls for reports ceased and the beeps from warning screens were left to sound. Workmen and workwomen looked up from their stations and stared at the messenger and their leader in shock. Their efforts had just been deemed pointless and the gaunt man they took orders from stood motionless.

'No... no, no, no, no,' Tarkin mumbled as he turned away from the workstations. The man's head could be seen shaking from side to side and his usually squared shoulders hunched in mania.

'I'm sorry, sir. The Empire has been ordered to disintegrate-' 

'NO!' the man cried and looked back at the workwoman with raging eyes and bared teeth. 'I will NOT let that stupid man stop this! I have sacrificed everything for this Empire, and I will NOT throw it all away because of some stupid Sith machine! 

I will blow these filthy rebel scum to kingdom come, and I will be the Emperor! I will continue the new Empire!' 

Grand Moff Tarkin had gone mad. The Imperial workers in the control room stared at the man before they all rose from their stations. The messenger in front of Tarkin backed away in fright before she turned to scurry out of the room. Tarkin watched in his craze state how his workers gathered their things before leaving after the messenger. 

When one last worker remained, Tarkin looked into the sunken stations at the bare seats. The worker looked up at his leader one last time before he pressed a button on his keyboard. The lights in the control room darkened to a bloody red, and a robotic voice sounded throughout the destroyer.

'Attention, attention, Order 98 is in effect. This vessel will self-destruct in t-minus ten minutes. I repeat, this vessel will self-destruct in t-minus ten minutes.' 

'The shields have just failed, sir. Good luck.'

The workman trudged out of the sunken workstation and left the control room. Grand Moff Tarkin was alone in the red hues and with a heaving chest, he turned back to the windshield. The shakes of the destroyer were now great trembles, and the rebels were blowing the ship apart. If the Resistance didn't destroy the star destroyer, then the ten-minute countdown would.

But Tarkin didn't need his crew. The TIE fighters that remained in space hadn't ceased their defenses, nor did the troops in Yavin 4's jungle. There was still the opportunity to succeed, and Tarkin would ensure to see it through.