Queen of the Empire

by Cardinal Dan Productions

Part 14: The Belly of the Beast

When Chrysalis opened her eyes again, the palace was gone. Instead, she now stood in a small, dark room, almost like a closet. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all metal and alien, confirming that she was indeed back on board the star destroyer. The only visable light came from the small window on the door that lead to a corridor.

“Alright, Ezra... What do we do now?” No response came, and the changeling glances behind her to discover that she was alone. “Ezra? Thrawn?”

A quick spin verified her fears. They were nowhere to be seen.

Panting heavily, Chrysalis rushed to the door and glanced through the small window. To her left, a patrol of stormtroopers was marching towards her. Needing to get out of sight, she ducked under the window as they passed her by. She was unable to see all while listening to the sound of their marching steps fade away. “Okay, get a grip, Chrysalis... You can do this...”

The changeling took a deep breath before rising to her full height again. Now, she needed a way to open the door and escape. A simple teleportation spell would be easy, but she didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention from passing stormtroopers. From her first visit to the destroyer, she remembered small buttons on the wall Thrawn would press in order to pass from one room to another. This time, however, there was no such device. The door was only ever meant to be opened from the outside, meaning she was trapped.

Just as she was preparing to teleport to the other side of the door, it opened, and Chrysalis found herself face to face with two stormtroopers, each with his blaster raised. The first one pointed into the closet, directly at the changeling. “It’s her!”

Chrysalis, in the panic of the moment, reared up on her back legs and brought her front hooves down on the armored troopers. She kicked them both, hard sending them flying across the corridor where they hit the wall before falling to the floor. The changeling was on them in seconds and was about to stomp on them again, but one of the troopers raised his hands over his head and pulled his helmet off. “Wait, don’t!”

Chrysalis gasped as she realized it was Ezra, and a huge grin came over her. “Oh... I thought you were stormtroopers...”

The second trooper removed his helmet, revealing his blue skin and red eyes. “That is clearly not the case.”

Thrawn let out a groan as he and Ezra climbed to their feet. “We were separated, and when I found Ezra, he was stealing stormtrooper armor from the armory.”

Ezra held up his hands in mock defense. “Hey, I said I’m borrowing it.”

Thrawn paid his remark no attention. “Anyway, I found this plan to be quite cunning, so I too dawned this disguise.”

Chrysalis didn’t care much about the story, but she was relieved to see her friends again. “I was worried when I found myself in that room without you both.”

Ezra offered her a kind smile before hiding his face behind the white mask once again. “Hey, it’s gonna take a lot more than that to separate us.”

Thrawn nodded slowly as he put his helmet back on too. “We should find the communications center first and keep it offline. Cavi is surly going to call for imperial reinforcements as soon as he gets the power he needs.” The grand admiral let out a long sigh. “Then, once we are certain communications are down, we must destroy this ship.”

He revealed a small bag of thermal detonators and looked at Ezra. “I stopped you once, Ezra Bridger, but now I need you to finish what you started.”

Chrysalis swallowed hard, knowing Ezra and Thrawn would never be able to go home without the star destroyer. Ezra saw her expression change, and he placed a reassuring hand in her shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about us, queenie. We know this is a one-way trip.”

She managed a sad smile and nodded her head. “Very well... Let’s do this.”

Ezra accepted the exsplosives from Thrawn and threw the bag over his shoulders. “I’ll take out the reactor. You two just make sure you get your job done, and we’ll meet at the escape pods.”

After a brief moment of silence, Thrawn extended a hand towards the Jedi. Ezra looked hesitant at first, but he gave in and accepted the grand admiral’s shake. “You never cease to amaze me, Ezra Bridger.”

He touched his fingers to the rim of his helmet, a salute of sorts, and bolted down the corridor. Now on their own, Chrysalis and Thrawn turned and began walking in the opposite direction. An intersection was directly ahead, and coming from around the corner, they could hear the sound of storm troopers approaching. Chrysalis’ ears twitched and she glanced towards Thrawn. “What do we do?! What do I do?!” Her heart was pounding in her chest as fear of being caught came over her. “I’m not like you. I don’t have a disguise. What do I do, Thrawn?!”

He shook his head and raised his blaster in the direction the troopers were coming from. “You’re a changeling, aren’t you? Change!”

Chrysalis was out of time. She closed her eyes and thought hard, concentrating on the one thing she could actually focus on. A green flame ignited under her hooves and rose to consume her entire body. In an instant, Chrysalis was no more. In her place, Ezra Bridger stood, clothes and all.

She couldn’t see Thrawn’s face through his helmet, but she could feel the glare hitting her. “That doesn’t help our situation, Chrysalis...”

It was too late to fix it, because several stormtroopers being lead by an imperial officer turned the corner. When the officer saw them, his eyes widened. “Trooper! Is that the rebel scum we’ve been after?”

It then dawned on Thrawn that he could use the unfortunate circumstances to their advantage. “Uh... Yes, sir.”

The officer looked very impressed. “I see... You captured him yourself? Well done, trooper. I’ll see to it that you’re actions are recognized by Captain Cavi. That only leaves the traitors Grand Admiral Thrawn and Commander Chrysalis.”

The disguised Thrawn nodded his head. “Of course, sir. I’ll escort the Jedi to the detention cells.”

Unfortunately, the officer shook his head. “Never mind that, trooper. Captain Cavi will want to interrogate this criminal himself on the bridge. Let us provide you an escort there.”

Chrysalis, dressed as Ezra, swallowed hard as she and Thrawn were lead in the opposite direction they needed to go. Already, their plan was beginning to fall apart. She only hoped that the real Ezra Bridger was having more luck.

***Up Next: The Tree of Harmony***

Comments

[Mr Dorito]

I have to state again how many men and women under Thrawn’s command are highly loyal to him. Their loyalty to him rivals that of Palptine’s so to say even the majority of them saw him a traitor is almost unbelievable.

Better to say Cavi and his inner circle lied to them and said the ponies killed Thrawn.

[josue]

9453232
Yes that makes sense that or there's a giant power play that's going on here with someone wanting thrawn out the way could even be Emperor Palpatine best way to do that would be to get rid of everyone that is loyal to thrawn