CHAPTER 32
The door to Maz's office slid open as the small alien led Jaina inside. Jaina looked at the assortment of items on the shelves. They were all left to collect dust.
"Let me set up the communicator for you. Please, have a seat." Maz requested. Jaina obliged and slowly sat down. Maz pulled out a communicator and began tinkering with it while Jaina questioned to herself if the thing still worked; it looked very old and dusty.
"This thing hasn't been used in years, but I'm sure it's still operational." Maz said, reassuringly.
With the press of a few buttons and a firm kick to the side of it, the communicator began to light up as it turned on. "There you go. Put it on whatever frequency you like. I'll be outside." Maz said before leaving.
Jaina turned towards the communicator and started contacting Mara.
***
After Mara had attempted to contact Jaina for hours, but when that didn't work, she started using a holomap to try and calculate where she could've gone. Still, no progress.
Anakin opened the door and walked into the room. "Did you get a hold of her yet?" He asked.
"Haven't you learned to knock?" Mara asked with a faint smile.
"Aunt Mara, please!" Anakin said, annoyed.
"No. Jaina could be anywhere by now." Mara answered.
"We have to find her!" Anakin said, impatiently.
"Remember your lessons about patience?" Mara asked.
"She's my sister. How can I not be worried about her?"
"Do you have faith that she'll be safe?" Mara asked.
"Of course I do!" Anakin exclaimed.
"Then calm your mind and prove that you trust her." Mara urged.
Anakin sighed and slowly nodded. "Yes... Master. Sorry."
"You're still learning and you care deeply about your sister. Nothing to apologize for." Mara responded.
Suddenly, Mara's comlink began beeping. They both looked at each other with hope in their eyes as Mara answered her comlink.
"Jaina? Is that you?" Mara asked.
"Aunt Mara?! Aunt Mara, it's me!" Jaina said happily as Mara sighed in relief.
"Why didn't you answer my calls sooner? We were starting to get worried about you!" Mara asked.
"My comlink broke. Since the First Order caught up to me, I had to leave Jakku. I'm currently on Takodana."
"Takodana? That's a smuggler hangout. What are you doing there?" Anakin asked.
"Long story. What matters right now is that I'm here with the droid and it still has the map. We-"
Her sentence was interrupted due to Mara's comlink suddenly going static.
"Jaina? Jaina, are you still there? Jaina?" Mara said into the comm, urgently. Anakin looked on in concern.
"What? What's happened?" Anakin asked.
"Her comm stopped working." Mara said.
"Why? Did her comm short out?" Anakin asked.
When Mara began to think of reasons, her mind immediately landed on the most obvious one. "No. She's being jammed. The First Order's found her." Mara answered. She suspected that if they chased her off Jakku, there was a chance they tracked her to Takodana. That didn't matter right now, because they now knew her location.
"We have to go!" Anakin said.
"I agree, but we can't go alone." Mara said.
***
When Jaina couldn't hear Mara's voice, she tried calling her name, but she was stopped when she heard the building rumble. It took her a moment to realize what was happening, but when she did, her eyes widened as she went to run out of the room to try and warn Maz, but it seemed she already knew.
"Those beasts... they're here." Maz said with displeasure.
"They've come for BB! We led them right to you! I'm sorry..." Jaina apologized.
"This couldn't have been prevented. Wars have made their way to this world time and time again. It will go on. But for now, you must fight them." Maz said. To that, Jaina gave her a confident nod and ran out of the castle. Just as she did, a loud explosion made her look up. She watched one of the towers get blown up by a passing TIE fighter, making debris fall down towards the castle. Quickly, she used the Force to keep the debris from falling and make it gently float towards the bottom. Strained, she bent over to take a few deep breaths.
"Jedi spotted!" A voice shouted from behind her. Jaina quickly turned around to see a squad of stormtroopers. Before she was able to reach for her lightsaber, they were immediately shot down by Sidon and his crew.
"We were going to leave, but saw the... you know... explosions... so we should probably stay until those guys are gone." Reveth said.
"What she's trying to say is you could probably use a hand!" Quiggold said.
"I couldn't agree more! I don't know how many there are, and we have to help the people!" Jaina said.
***
Finn bolted for the castle as fast as he could when he saw the TIEs approaching. He needed to go back and warn Jaina, he no longer cared about going to the Outer Rim. Making sure BB-8 and Jaina got back to Coruscant safely was the most important thing to worry about right now. He didn't know how the First Order even found them. Maybe the gangsters who attacked Sidon's crew tipped them off, or maybe there was a spy in Maz's castle, standing by and watching out for them and once they spotted them, they alerted them. One way or another, he knew running away would do no good. The First Order would just shoot down any ships that tried to flee. So, he had no choice but to follow Maz's advice and face them and fight. He watched as the castle began to fall apart due to taking repeated blows from the fighters, several pieces of stone landing around him.
He proceeded to run faster upon seeing multiple squads of stormtroopers running towards the collapsing castle. He took cover behind a large boulder and began shooting at the stormtroopers. The stormtroopers quickly spotted his position and began taking cover as well. He needed to think. He trained with these people, so he would know all their strategies. Looking to his left, he saw a blur of white move between the trees. Finn immediately took aim and hit the advancing stormtroopers. They were trying to flank him while the majority would draw his attention. He peeked over the boulder and began shooting at the stormtroopers. The ones he was shooting at took cover while other squads opened fire, forcing him to duck behind cover. This didn't look good. There were multiple squadrons of stormtroopers and it was just him shooting them right now. He knew their strategies and might be able to predict their next moves if he catches a glimpse of them, but he can't see them if they're all shooting at him. He needed to use his brain. Come on! Think! What tactic would they use in this situation? They have me outnumbered, but they likely know who I am, so they would know that I know their tactics. I have to-
Finn was taken out of his thoughts when he looked up at a stormtrooper to his right pointing their blaster at him. Finn didn't know what to do, he couldn't aim his blaster quick enough, or he'd be shot, and he doubted they were taking prisoners.
A purple flash of light made him flinch and close his eyes for a moment, but when he didn't feel the burning sensation of a blaster bolt piercing through his body, he slowly opened them to see Jaina standing over the trooper's body while brandishing her purple lightsaber. Finn stared up at her in amazement and relief.
"Jaina... Jaina, I-"
"Don't worry about it right now. Let's just stay focused on taking care of these guys and keeping everyone safe. I'll watch your back as long as you watch mine. Got that?" Jaina interrupted. Finn only responded with a nod before more blaster fire made him turn towards the incoming stormtroopers. Jaina assumed a stance and focused her attention on the stormtroopers.
"Then stay close."
END OF CHAPTER 32
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