Part 11 (1/2)

Leia just shook her head.

Luke hadn't known Ferus very long or very well, but there had been something about the man that seemed so familiar, something that made him feel like part of the family. A family that was very quickly dying off.

”How about we move this party to the s.h.i.+p,” Han said. ”Before we get toasted.”

Leia shot him a quick, wounded look, and he immediately softened his tone. ”I'm sorry, Princess,” he said quietly. ”But we have to go.”

”I know,” she admitted, and released Ferus's hand. ”I hate to leave him.”

Luke cleared his throat. ”We won't.”

He shared a glance with Han, and they both bent down on either side of Leia to raise the body of the fallen Jedi.

Leia took hold of Ferus' hand once again. ”Let's go.”

They walked in silence toward the edge of the camp where the Falcon Falcon was docked. was docked.

Chewbacca had kept the engines running. The entire fleet had jumped into hypers.p.a.ce, along with the Imperials. They were the only ones left in the system, with six minutes to go. But just as they were about to take off, Luke froze.

”What is it, kid?” Han asked impatiently.

Luke raised a pair of microbinoculars to his eyes. More than a kilometer away, a figure in a black robe swept toward an Imperial shuttle.

”Vader,” Luke said darkly. ”You think he...”

”Yes,” Leia said, without doubt. ”He killed Ferus.”

Luke activated his lightsaber, ”And I'm not letting him get away with it.”

”Luke, there's no time,” Leia said.

”And there's no way you face him and live,” Han added.

Luke didn't care. He was tired of running from Vader. It was time to face the enemy head on. After everything he'd been through; hadn't he proven his strength? He felt like he could do anything-and right now, destroying Vader was the only thing he wanted to do.

Leia grabbed his arm.

”Luke, think think. He'll kill you, you know that. And even if he doesn't, even if by some miracle, you manage to defeat him, it'll be too late to escape. You'll die in the shock wave.” The enormous sun loomed overhead, blotting out much of the sky.

”Then either way, Vader will die,” Luke said. ”All I have to do is stall him, keep him from boarding that shuttle, and he's gone forever. Isn't that worth the sacrifice?”

Han snorted. ”Sacrifice is overrated.”

”He doesn't understand,” Luke said to Leia. ”But you must. After everything he's taken from you-”

”I won't let him take you, too!” Leia shouted, as close to losing control as he had ever seen her. She grabbed him by both shoulders. ”How many people have given their lives so you could survive?” she asked him. ”You think you can throw your life away, like it's nothing? nothing? ” ”

Luke gritted his teeth. ”It'd be worth it.”

”Nothing's worth that,” Han argued. ”We'll have another chance. And when the time comes, we'll be there. We'll have your back.”

”The galaxy needs you,” Leia said. ”We need you. And you need us you need us.”

Luke had learned something from his imprisonment: No matter how many friends you have, no matter how determined they are to remain by your side, some things have to be faced alone. Sometimes you only had your own strength to draw from; you only had yourself to rely on.

And something told Luke that the day he finally faced Darth Vader would be one of those times.

But not yet.

Not today.

Luke watched the black-robed figure getting smaller and smaller as he swept toward his s.h.i.+p. I will watch you die I will watch you die, he thought. I will make you pay for everything you've done. I will make you pay for everything you've done.

But today, instead of taking Vader's life, he would save his own. ”Let's get out of here,” he said, and began climbing into the Falcon Falcon. Leia and Han stood in the hatchway, watching him board. Suddenly, Leia's eyes widened. ”Behind you!” she cried.

Luke whirled around, fumbling for a weapon. A bloodied and ragged Soresh stood at the base of the s.h.i.+p.

”Did you really think I would let you leave this moon alive, Luke?” Soresh shouted up at him. ”You will always belong to me!” Soresh raised a blaster-just as a bolt of laserfire hit him squarely in the chest.

He toppled to the ground.

”See what I mean, kid?” Han asked. He slipped his blaster back into its holster and grinned. ”That's another one you owe me.”

The shock wave blasted through the star system, steamrolling everything in its path. A small, dead moon was no match for its explosive power. The storm of fire and radiation overwhelmed the moon, blasting it to dust and ash. Within seconds, the moon was gone.

Only glowing radiation and swirling debris were left behind. And still, the supernova's thirst was unquenched. The shock wave rolled on, killing one planet after another. Until what had been a star system was nothing more than a blinding glow, stretching across billions of kilometers of s.p.a.ce.

It almost looked alive, pulsing and expanding, constantly reborn.

But looks were deceiving; it wasn't a life. It was a long and fiery death. For the sun, for the system-and for any living creature foolish enough to be caught in its wake.

”There it goes,” Luke said, as the white dot on the viewscreen swelled into a luminous smear, brighter than a galaxy. Hard to believe that he was watching the death of an entire star system.

Harder still to believe that Ferus and Div were lost in the inferno, and would never be seen again.

”You think Vader made it out in time?” Leia asked. They'd left the moon with only minutes to spare and fled the system without looking back.

”He was cutting it close,” Han pointed out. ”Maybe Soresh did us all a favor and toasted the guy once and for all.”