Chapter 20
On the planet of Gemmax, war had broken out.
All over the place, droids and fighters were launching lasers in every direction. The mechanical war machines were showing no mercy, as they blasted everything that wasn't another droid. Meanwhile, the Gemman troops were fighting to protect their home.
Jasper Scarlet roared, as he shot several droids attempting to get more footing in one of the cities being attacked. But no matter how many he gunned down, more appeared to take their place. "How many of these things are there?" As he asked, his daughter leapt over him and slashed her blade through a wasp droid.
Rarity also appeared and cut three more droids down, making Jasper look around.
He spotted some scorpion droids, heading towards the castle that houses the city's populace. "We can't let them get close to the castle."
"He's right!" Ruby told Rarity. "There's still little we know about these droids. They might be able to disrupt the shield surrounding the castle."
Rarity nodded and they headed towards the castle.
Luna, Fluttershy and First Aid were already there, having arrived a short time ago. Fluttershy and First were busy using their Force Healing, to help the injured soldiers recover. "You're gonna be okay," the pink haired girl told a soldier with a bleeding leg.
At the same time, Luna was guarding the outer edges of the castle's barrier.
An explosion made her look up and see a Delta-X, blasting a fighter and keeping it from getting too close to the castle. She nodded, glad that nobody was going to be getting close to this castle. And as a scorpion droid approached, she stood protective of the barrier with her Splitsaber divided.
The machine fired and she easily deflected the blasts, as she flew forward and cut the end off the droid's blaster tail before stabbing down into its head. Once it was dead, she pulled back and returned to the barrier.
"Luna," First rushed up to her. "You should come in and take a rest. You have been fighting nonstop. Do not forget, you took a pretty bad hit earlier."
"I'm fine," Luna assured him. "You just keep working on healing the injured." Several humanoid droids marched onto the scene, climbing over the destroyed husks of their fellow droids. Luna quickly flew forward and cut through them, the machines not even having time to aim their weapons before she sliced them to bits.
First returned to healing more wounded, but knew Luna couldn't keep up this pace forever. "We have to find a way to stop them."
Fluttershy heard this and nodded. "I think some of the fighters are attempting to take down the destroyer over the city. Once that's dealt with, they won't have a way to send more troops."
"I hope you are right," First nodded. "We still do not know why they chose this place. There has to be something here that they wish to get their hands on. If we ca not figure out what that is, the Sith will continue to have a lead over us." Fluttershy nodded, as she wondered what the Sith had come here for.
In another area of the planet, Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon had discovered a secret tunnel that led underground.
Having first a fighter ship, one which the Sith's forces use, the girls had been on edge. And after finding this tunnel, the girls had become even more worried since they realised what this meant. "Be ready," Twilight stepped forward into the tunnel. "There's no telling how many enemies are down here."
"That fighter only holds one," Trixie pointed out.
"Maybe, but they might have dropped forces with whoever's down here. I think those deployment pods can launch back to the ship, so there could be a whole bunch of bug troopers down here. If whoever this is is alone, we'll have been extra cautious for nothing. But if they aren't alone, we won't be snuck up on."
"Alright," Trixie nodded. "But who do you think is down here?"
Twilight frowned, as she remembered that stone slab located outside the entrance. "The doorway wasn't blasted open and nothing seemed damaged. That means whoever opened this thing, did it using The Force. Which means one of those Sith Generals is down here. But which one?"
Trixie looked around the tunnel, which was large enough to fit them inside by not by much. "That Tirek guy was supposed to be quite large, so I doubt he could fit in here."
"True, which leaves Doom Raizer, Armalum, Chrysalis and Solara." Twilight frowned. "They're all powerful. Facing any of them could end in us losing our lives." Trixie didn't look so happy about that. "If you wanna go back-"
"And leave you to have all the glory? Forget it. Who cares how powerful those Sith are. We can take them and stop whatever they're planning. Just watch. This event will go down in Jedi history. The Great and Powerful Trixie, vanquishes the first Sith in over a century. With the help of her plucky sidekick, Twilight."
"Seriously?" Twilight frowned, as they continued down the tunnel.
Said tunnel was rather long. So long, that the light coming from the surface eventually stopped reaching it. The girls were soon in total darkness and since they didn't have any other light source, ignited their Lightsabers to see what was in front of them.
They kept going until, after a long while, they finally reached the end of the tunnel. And when they did, what they found surprised them.
Another wall, which looked above the same size as the entrance from outside. But the wall wasn't solid, as it had a large hole in the middle of it. And when they got closer, they saw the hole was not as old as the rest of the tunnel.
The stone was still hot, as the girls carefully checked it and could feel the heat coming off it. The hole wasn't a perfect circle, clearly being something someone carved without trying to be neat. And when they looked through the hole, they saw the broken pieces of the wall on the other side.
"A Lightsaber did this," Twilight stated. "There's no doubt anymore. It's one of the Sith. But why did they have to cut their way through the wall?" She touched it, "was there no other way to open it?"
"Maybe there's something on the broken pieces that'll tell us." Trixie held out her hand to lift the pieces, but the rock refused to move. "What?" She tried again, but the stone didn't even budge. "What's going on?"
"What?"
"I can't use The Force."
Twilight raised an eyebrow and also tried, but found the rock refused to budge. "Impossible." She extinguished her Lightsaber and tried to make it float, but nothing happened. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on connecting to The Force, but she couldn't. "What's happening? It's like I've been cut off from The Force."
"How? I thought The Force was in everything. It's supposed to be the very binding force that links every molecule in the galaxy."
"I don't know how, but this place must prevent Jedi from using The Force. I guess it makes sense. If this place was made to protect something from Jedi, stopping us from using The Force is a smart move." She frowned before taking several steps back. "I can't stop. I might not have The Force with me, but I can't let that hinder me." She ran forward and leapt through the hole, being sure not to touch the still hot sides.
She rolled along the ground and stood back up, looking around as Trixie did the same.
They were inside a large square room with many stone doors inside of it. Lining the walls between the doors were a bunch of purple gems, which gave off a strange light that Trixie looked intrigued by. "Ooh," she smiled as she looked it over. "These look interesting."
"Just be careful," Twilight stated. "There's no telling what could set off a trap."
"Alright," Trixie looked towards the doors and noticed they all had a different symbol, etched into the stone. "Wonder what these marks are for." But as she reached out and touched the door, the symbol glowed red and she gasped.
The next thing they knew, the room started shaking and the centre of the room began to crack apart. It then broke apart and disappeared into the darkness beneath it, the girls rushing to look down and being shocked when they couldn't see the bottom. And eventually, they heard the rock of the floor land a long way away.
Twilight gulped. "Okay, that's terrifying." She looked at all the doors and the one Trixie had touched, was still glowing bright red. "Clearly, only one of these doors leads where we want to go. And every time we pick the wrong door, we'll have less floor to stand on."
"Great," Trixie frowned, "just what we need. A death trap." They had to find the real door, but which one to pick?
Twilight looked around and as she did, she focused on the symbols etched into each of the doors. These symbols were, of course, the same as the ones from the first temple. But then she remembered them also being on the doorway outside, which made Twilight's brain click.
She carefully examined each one and eventually, she pointed at one. "There!" She rushed for the door and Trixie went after her, not wanting to be near the centre in case she was wrong.
"What makes you think this is the right door?" But as soon as Twilight touched it, the door's symbol glowed green and the stone began to retract into the ceiling. "How?"
"Remember those symbols that were outside the entrance? They're the same symbols that are on these doors. I realised they were put on the doorway to make a message. They were for solving whatever insane maze this is."
Trixie caught on. "I get it. So the symbol on the door was the first symbol that was outside." Twilight nodded, as the door finished rising. "Come on. Before it closes again." Trixie followed her, as they headed into a long winding tunnel. It had several turns and eventually, it led to the next room. And just like Twilight guessed, they found themselves in an identical room to the last one.
The door slammed shut behind them and they were met with the same choice as last time, only now they knew what to look for. "You do remember the order all the symbols were in, right?" Twilight was clearly trying to remember the exact order, but the symbols were so complicated that she was having trouble remembering which was which. "Oh this is gonna be fun."
Up on the planet, Flash was still in his Delta-X.
He flew towards the destroyer ship, another Delta-X flying beside him. He glanced over and saw Shining, the pair staring at one another and nodding before turning their attention back to the destroyer. And as they got closer, the ship unleashed a bunch of fighters that flew towards them.
They spun around to avoid the oncoming fire, Springer quickly aiming the weapons and firing as Flash got closer to the destroyer. "I hope these things work," Flash aimed at part of the destroyer and fired something.
From out the bottom of the Delta-X, a disk of some kind shot forward and flew towards the ship. As Flash pulled away, the disk connected to the destroyed and was magnetised onto it.
Shining was above the ship, locking onto the place he needed to be and firing his own disk straight towards the hip.
It flew down and connected, the two disk beeping as they went unnoticed by those around it. "Got one," he cheered. "R-12, prepare the second disk." Behind him, a brown astromech droid beeped. The machine quickly got to work, programming another disk inside the ship's catapult system. "Flash. How's it looking on your end?"
"Almost done," Flash announced. "Springer's finished programming. Once the last disks are put into place, we'll be ready to take this thing down."
"Let me know when you've placed the device." Several fighters started shooting at him, but Shining quickly avoided the lasers and fired back. He also shot a few turrets, keeping them from firing at him before he could launch his final offensive.
"Device set. You have the location?" Shining checked his computer and nodded.
"Roger. Launching the disk now." His targeting computer locked on and he fired, the disk shooting out of his Delta-X and locking on perfectly. "Got it. Let's get out of here!"
The destroyer continued to launch ships and droids, as the two Delta-X fighters flew away from them. Once they were far enough away, Springer activated the devices that had been placed on the destroyers.
The next thing those on the ship knew, the destroyer's systems began to overload and explode. They cried out, as the whole place began to blow. "Yes!" Springer cheered. "I knew making a copy of that destroyer's code was a good idea. Now we don't have to sneak aboard to deal with them."
"Maybe," Flash nodded. "But there are still a few more destroyers on the planet. Gemmax won't be safe until they're all taken down."
"He's right," Shining agreed. "But our fighters don't have the energy reserves, to fight off all the ships that'll try and stop us."
"Good thing Rainbow and Spitfire are with us," Flash pointed out. "Maybe we should head back to the castle, to make sure everyone's alright." Shining agreed and they flew off, as the destroyer began to fall to the ground.
At the castle, Luna continued to slash her way through any droid that got too close.
She panted, as she cut through another wasp droid and brought her blades together. As she did, several humanoid droids marched forward and pointed their weapons at her. She took a deep breath and started spinning the weapon, deflection their blows as she got closer and closer.
But one shot managed to hit her leg, making her scream as she staggered back.
First and Fluttershy heard this cry and gasped, as they watched the Jedi Master fall. But before they could rush out and save her, Ruby and Rarity appeared.
The two cut their way through the droids, as Jasper ran up and shot a few more. This allowed the healers to run out and grab Luna, bringing her into the safety of the castle's defences. "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked, as they set Luna down so First could check up on her.
"It's just a flesh wound," Luna replied.
"Hardly," First countered as he saw the burn. "If this was not getting instant treatment, you might have ended up with a mechanical leg after this." He started healing her, as Ruby, Rarity and Jasper battled against the droids.
She hated just sitting around, wishing there was something she could do to occupy her time. Then, she realised there was something she could do and activated her gauntlet. "Twilight, come in." Her sister's student didn't answer. "Trixie, are you there?" Her student was just as unresponsive. "Shooting Star! Come in, Shooting Star!" but there was no answer.
The others looked worried, wondering why the girls wouldn't respond. "This can't be good," Fluttershy gulped.
"Let us not jump to conclusions," First told her. "It is possible they are in Ruby's home city and behind some kind of communications barrier." They hoped he was right. "Let us try and get in contact with Ruby's home before we start worrying." They nodded and Fluttershy took out her Lightsaber, running out into the battlefield so she could talk with Ruby and Jasper.
Luna hoped they were just behind some kind of barrier. But if they weren't, what could have happened to them. She dreaded knowing the answer.
Back underground, Twilight and Trixie had managed to make it through four rooms.
Twilight had managed to find each of the correct doors, with only one mistake causing part of the floor to collapse. And with each room, Twilight's options became easier. "I'm certain none of the symbols repeated themselves on the doorway outside." They stepped into the fifth room. "I just have to remember which symbols we've already passed and we can focus on the rest."
Trixie nodded but as she looked towards all the doors, she noticed something. "And what if all the doors have the same symbol?" Twilight looked to the doors and realised she was right.
The stone doors all had the exact same symbol.
"Oh," Twilight frowned before she realised something. "They're not the same. Each one has a slight difference." Trixie looked them over and realised Twilight was right. Said symbol was a spiralling pattern, with a vertical line to its right that had a horizontal line sticking out its right side. But there were slight differences each time. The horizontal line was either at the top, bottom, part ways down or pointing diagonally.
The spirals were also different, either having their ending point at a different spot or being flipped. Whilst they looked the same, they were not.
"So which one's the one from outside?" Trixie stared at each one, but had no idea which they would need to select in order to move forward.
"I have no idea," Twilight frowned. "It's not like I memorised all the symbols." She opened her gauntlet to try and bring up the info she had downloaded about them, but the gauntlet had no signal. She couldn't connect to anything. "Come on."
"There has to be some way to tell which one is the real one."
"Not unless you want to go all the way back to the start and take a picture of it. But by then, whoever's already here might get what they're after." Hearing that made Trixie remember that someone had come in ahead of them. Someone who, based on the floors, had gotten past the doors without issue. And that included this one.
"There has to be a way to tell which of these doors was opened before?" Trixie began examining the doors, but each one looked just like the others. That was until she came to the second to last one, where she saw something sticking out from under the door. "What's this?"
Twilight looked around and saw what Trixie was pointing to. A piece of grass, half sticking out from under the door. "How'd that get down here?"
Trixie could only guess and in an insane act of bravo, she reached out and placed her hand on the door.
Twilight expected the floor to collapse, but the door quickly began to rise. "How'd you know this was the door?" Trixie smirked as she picked up the piece of grass, which was also covered in mud.
"Whoever came through he before, obviously forgot to wipe the bottom of their boot. They just happened to leave a piece of grass behind." Twilight smiled as they headed into the door, which led to a staircase going downwards. This caused the girls to frown, since it was likely they had made their way to the final part of the maze.
Both taking out their Lightsabers, the girls headed down the stairs and kept on guard.
When they reached the bottom, they found themselves at a doorway leading into another room. One which appeared to be barely lit, as the room had only been filled with light from four torches. But the light was enough for them to see into the very centre of the room, where some kind of round stone pedestal was waiting for them.
They stepped in closer and looked the pedestal over, the pair seeing that it was some kind of puzzle. The puzzle was divided into sections and by the looks of things, those sections spun around. "Whatever's in this thing must be really important," Twilight studied the device. "Why else would anyone go to so much trouble to fight it."
"I never got the whole 'hiding something in a secret temple' thing. If you really want to make sure something's never found, just dig a deep hole and stick it in there."
Twilight shrugged as she took a closer look at the puzzle and noticed carvings engraved into it. When she rolled the top part of it around, she found it lined up with the next part and formed one of the symbols that had been on the doors. She quickly started turning the rest of the wheels around, the podium slowly forming all the symbols that had led them to this area.
But she soon found a new issue. "This next part's really heavy!" Twilight grunted, as she tried to turn the wheel that was halfway down the podium. But it was stuck in place and she couldn't get it to move. "If only I could use The Force. Moving this thing would be a piece of cake."
"That's probably why they made it so you couldn't use the Force in here." Trixie moved over to one of the torches and noticed the same stones from the rooms before, were embedded into the rock. She reached out to touch the stone and found it fell off the torch, Trixie gasping as she caught it.
"Give me a hand," Twilight stated. Trixie stuffed the stone in her pocket and rushed to Twilight's side, the two grabbing the stone wheel and turning it until the piece was lined up with the rocks above it. They then moved to the next rock and this one was just as stuck as the first, the girls grunting as they moved it into place.
They kept this up for several minutes until they got all but the last ring into place. But when they tried to move it, they discovered the ring was connected to the ground. "Seriously!?" Trixie groaned, as the pair had to redo all the other rings from the ground up. "Next time we investigate an ancient Jedi temple, let's bring a lifting droid."
"Agreed." Twilight moaned as they moved the last stiff ring into place. After that, the others were easy to move and they soon had them all perfectly lined up.
When they did, the whole thing suddenly lit up. "Wow!" Trixie stepped back, as Twilight watched carefully. "What's going on?" She got her answer when the top of the podium slowly opened up. As it did, something was lifted up onto it. That something was a small triangular metal plate, which had a yellow gem in the centre of it whilst the tips were differently coloured crystals as well. One red, one yellow and one blue.
Once it was completely lifted up, the symbols stopped glowing and Twilight took a closer look. "Is this it?" She picked it up and looked it over. "All this, for a little plate?" Twilight was reminded of what Flash had said, about the triangular object he hadn't gotten to see. "Whatever you are, you must be important."
Trixie was about to say something, but suddenly noticed movement in one of the corners and gasped. "Look out!" She pushed Twilight out of the way before leaping back, as a red Lightsaber flew past them.
Twilight hit the ground and accidentally dropped the triangle she had been holding, as Trixie pointed her Lightsaber in the direction the red one had come from. And from out of the shadows, Solara stepped forward. "You!" Trixie cried, as the Sith seemed to be paying more attention to Twilight. "Hey, don't ignore me!" She ran forward and swung her blade towards Solara, but the Sith easily dodged.
Solara then ran across the room, attempting to call her Lightsaber back to her. But the weapon didn't move and Solara was forced to physically pick it up.
Once she did, she pointed it towards Twilight. "Hand over the relic!"
Twilight frowned as she picked herself up. "I don't think so." She didn't have the relic right now, but she wasn't gonna tell the Sith that. "If you want it, you're gonna have to take it from me." She ignited her own Lightsaber and Solara pointed it at her, whilst Trixie ran forward.
"I told you not to ignore me!" She swung her blade at her, but Solara blocked it with her open and pushed Trixie back. Twilight ran forward as well and also attacked, Solara easily blocking her attack.
As Twilight and Trixie began to fight, Solara showed her Lightsaber skills by easily holding the two off. The Sith only chuckled, as she jumped back to avoid Twilight's blade. "You're in trouble now," she told her. "Without The Force, you have no edge over me."
Twilight frowned, as she realised Solara was right. In a battle where the only deciding factor was Lightsaber skills, she was in trouble.
Back at the city, Ruby and Jasper were inside the castle after Fluttershy had asked about their friends.
Fluttershy and Rarity were fighting against the approaching droids, whilst first finished treating Luna's leg injury. "There," he told her, "I have done the best I can. You will need a bactar soak in order to fix that leg the rest of the way." Luna nodded, as Ruby and Jasper left the castle.
"We have a problem," Ruby told them. "I just got through to my mother, but she said your ship hasn't shown up."
"What?" Luna was shocked, "but they should have gotten there by now. Your city wasn't too far from where we left them. By ship, it should have only taken a few minutes."
"Which leads us to believe they never got to the city," Jasper announced. "I hate to say this, but it's possible your ship was shot down or something." Luna and First frowned.
"The ship did take a lot of damage," Ruby pointed out. "Maybe more than we originally thought. It's possible, the Shooting Star crashed somewhere. But I don't know where it could have gone."
"We have to find them." Luna moved to get up, but First stopped her before she could put any weight on her leg.
"Hold it. You can not do anything in your current state. You will have to allow someone else to search for them." Luna nodded, as she activated her gauntlet.
"Shining Armor. Spitfire, Flash Sentry, Rainbow Dash. Is anyone receiving me?"
"I hear you," all four answered.
"We have a problem. Twilight, Trixie and the Shooting Star are missing."
"WHAT?" Shining's voice cried out, either upset about his sister being missing or his favourite ship being gone. "What happened?"
"We don't know. We haven't been able to contact them and they never showed up, at the city they were supposed to fly to. We fear something bad might have happened to them." Luna looked up and watched a Delta-X fly around, blasting another fighter out of the sky. "One of you needs to find them."
"Alright," Shining agreed. "Flash, see if you can track them down. If the Shooting Star's not been destroyed, Springer should be able to track its signature."
"On it," Flash and Springer replied. They watched as the Delta-X flew off, leaving the other three to take care of the ships in the sky.
With the destroyer ship taken out of action, the number of ships and droids were finally starting to go down. Hopefully, by the time Flash found the girls, they would have all been taken down.
Twilight, Trixie and Solara continued to circle around one another, the two Jedi glaring the Sith down.
"I'm a reasonable person," Solara stated. "Simply give me the relic and I'll let you go. But if you refuse to see the truth, I'll have no choice but to slay you where you stand." She shot forward and swung his blade towards them, the Jedi leaping back and moving so Solara was between them.
Trixie and Twilight then attacked with their Lightsabers, hoping she couldn't stop both at the same time.
But Solara easily dodged Trixie's attack whilst blocking Twilight's, running forward and forcing her to stagger back until she managed to pull away. The green blade then swung towards Solara's head, but the Sith ducked under it and thrust her red blade forward. Twilight had to leap out of the way, so she didn't get stabbed in the stomach.
She then slipped and fell to the floor, as Solara stood up and prepared to attack. But Trixie chose this moment to leap in and aimed a strike to her neck, but Solara spun around and deflected the strike. She knocked Trixie's blade away before spinning around and slamming her boot into Trixie's chest.
The girl screamed, as she was knocked back and fell to the ground. But this allowed Twilight to get up.
The armored Magi turned back to Twilight and tilted her head, as she slowly made her way over to her. "You know you can't win. I spent years, training to destroy Jedi. Every waking moment, I worked tirelessly to become the thing Jedi feared most."
"Doesn't sound like a very fun life," Twilight pointed out.
"What would a Jedi know about fun? When you're not forcing your beliefs and judgement on the galaxy, all you do is sit around trying to make yourself look more important than you are. How would you know anything about the things that make life worth living?"
"Seriously?" Trixie stood up. "You really need to get up to speed. The Jedi haven't been like that in years. So long as it's not illegal, we can do pretty much anything we want in our spare time."
"Then defeating you will be even easier than I had originally expected." She rushed forward and thrust her blade at Twilight, the girl knocking it away from her with her own sword. Trixie then ran forward and slashed at her head, but Solara ducked and jumped back as Trixie swung her blade around.
As she did so, a glint caught her eye and Solara looked around.
There, laying on the ground, was the triangular relic that Twilight had dropped. Twilight and Trixie noticed her attention on the ground and turned to see it as well, the girl gasping as Solara ran for it. "NO!" Trixie ran forward and managed to get between Solara and the relic, the Sith swinging her blade down only for Trixie to block it.
Trixie was pushed down to her knees and groaned, as Solara's greater strength was beginning to overwhelm her.
The Lightsabers were slowly pushed towards her face and Trixie could feel the heat. Any closer and her skin would begin to burn. But it didn't come to that, as Twilight leapt into action.
"Raaaaah!" Twilight thrust her blade towards Solara's head, almost stabbing her in the brain. But at the last moment, Solara pulled back and Trixie was able to move her sword away from her.
Solara jumped to a safe distance and Trixie used this opening to turn around and grab the relic, stuffing it in her pocket as Solara growled. "Give it to me!" She ran forward and Twilight stood protectively of her friend.
"Run!" She blocked Solara's strike and Trixie nodded before turning to the stairs.
"Get back here!" Solara cried, seeing Trixie run to the exit. But Twilight stayed between her and Trixie, forcing the Sith to attack her. The girls clashed blades and as Trixie ran up the stairs, Solara managed to knock Twilight off balance and kick her in the stomach.
Twilight gasped as she fell to the ground, fearing Solara was about to stab her. But the Sith clearly felt the relic was more important than killing her, so ran off after Trixie. Twilight took a deep breath and forced herself back to her feet, chasing after Solara as she ran up the stairs.
Up on the planet, Flash's fighter was still searching for The Shooting Star and the girls on board.
Springer was constantly scanning the area around them, searching for the ship's signature. But so far, nothing was coming up. That was until they picked something up a ways off in the distance.
"I think we've found something," Springer told him. "Straight ahead." Flash pushed the ship to full throttle and the fighter zoomed forward, as the signal got closer and closer. "There!"
Flash spun the ship upside down and they looked ahead, The Shooting Star being right in front of them. "Gotcha!" Flash used the ship's scanners to do a once over on the ship. "Geez. Looks like it took a serious beating. The vertical thrusters have been completely destroyed."
"That would explain why they crashed," Springer agreed. "But I'm not detecting any life forms on board."
Flash frowned, "is there any organic matter at all?" He prayed Springer would say no. If there was, Flash would have to land and go in to see what it was. And the last thing he wanted, was to see his friends' bodies.
"None," Springer replied, "looks like they're not in there." Flash sighed in relief and tried to think.
"They couldn't fly the ship anymore, so they must have gotten out to walk. And knowing Twilight, she'd have headed straight for the city they were originally heading for. Which means we know which direction they went. Springer. Plot a course that takes us the easiest route for someone to get to the city on foot."
"On it." Flash hoped he would find the girls, walking towards the city looking exhausted but uninjured. He wasn't sure what he would tell anyone if he couldn't find them, or found them in a bad state.
Trixie ran as fast as she could up the stairs, eventually arriving at the door that had led them to it.
She slammed her hand on said door and to her relief, it began to open upon the first touch. But the process was slow and Trixie turned to see Solara chasing her, the girl raising her blade as the Sith attacked.
Being higher up, Trixie had the advantage. But Solara started aiming for her legs and Trixie was forced to jump around, as Twilight slowly made her way up to them. But before Solara could hit Trixie's legs, the stone door fully opened and she was able to leap backwards.
Solara followed and the two started fighting within the room, Solara's saber skills proving to be better than Trixie's as they clashed.
Twilight finally arrived and when she did, she saw Trixie was in trouble. But before she could rush in, she noticed Solara's location and had an idea. As such, she ran around until she was behind Solara. The Sith knew she was there and was clearly ready to counter, but Trixie actually saw her as she reached out for one of the wrong doors.
Her eyes went wide and she smiled before letting Solara knock her backwards, Twilight hitting the door as soon as she was away.
The doors all glowed red and Solara looked around, as Trixie ran for another door and also touched it. The ground beneath Solara's feet began to break apart and as the Sith could do nothing but run for the edge, only for the floor to give way. She tried to leap away, but without The Force she had no way of reaching the edge.
She missed by a few inches and grabbed onto the edge, barely managing to hold on as her arms clung to the sides. "Augh!"
Twilight ran around the hole, as Trixie opened the door leading to the other passageways. "Let's get out of here!" Twilight nodded and they both ran as fast as they could through the passageway, Solara roaring as she tried her best to pull herself up. But due to her added weight, the broken piece of floor she was on was beginning to slowly crack apart.
Back at the city, Ruby had rejoined the fight to protect the castle.
Jasper was directing his own troops in their fight, attempting to move them to the areas that were being targeted the most by the droids. All the while, Ruby, Fluttershy and Rarity were fighting off the machines. But they couldn't keep this up forever.
"We need our own set of battle droids," Rarity cried after cutting the head off of one. "At the very least, enough to give us time to catch our breath." She dodged a wasp droid's laser blast and grabbed it in The Force, pulling it down so it smashed against the ground.
As that was happening, one of the few surviving crystal tanks was moving towards them. At the same time, a scorpion droid was approaching and the tank took aim. It fired and the droid was blown to bits, only for the tank to then be destroyed by a passing fighter.
As the ship pulled up, a Delta-X flew by and blasted it. The fighter blew up and Rainbow cheered from inside. "That's how you do it!" She then heard a beeping behind her and rolled her eyes. "Would you relax, M-4. I know what I'm doing." The brown and yellow astrodroid, clearly had other ideas.
Back on the ground, Jasper was running through the battlefield with his blaster at the ready.
He looked around a piece of crystal rubble and spotted several droids, matching past on their way to the castle. As they did, Jasper took a small round device off his belt and spun the top half a few inches before throwing it. It landed between the droids and made them look down, seconds before it exploded and blasted them all to bits.
Jasper laughed as he ran out, checking to make sure the droids were down and out. But as he did so, he had no idea a wasp droid was flying over him until it was too late.
The droid fired and struck the ground at Jasper's feet.
"GYAH!" He was thrown through the air, crashing into the ground as something within him snapped. He cried out in pain, as the wasp charged up another blast. Despite the pain, he refused to give in and reached out for his blaster. But it was too far away from him.
The wasp fired and he braced himself for the end. But it never came.
Opening his eyes, he saw Rarity standing in front of him. The cat girl had her hand out, the laser blaster floating in front of her as she struggled to keep it from hitting them. But as she did this, she was unable to move or protect herself. And the wasp droid was quickly recharging its weapons again.
But before it could strike, Ruby appeared and swung her blade through the machine.
As the droid was destroyed, Fluttershy ran up and placed her Lightsaber between Rarity and the laser blast. Rarity dropped her hold on it and the blast struck Fluttershy's Lightsaber, bouncing off of it without hurting anyone.
Ruby ran over to her downed father and picked him up, Jasper crying out in pain. "We have to get him back to the city."
"There are droids everywhere," Rarity pointed out. "We can't carry him and avoid getting hit by their blasts at the same time." As she said that, her gauntlet beeped and she opened it.
"This is Shining Armor. I can see you're in trouble. Take him back to the castle. I'll cover you from my ship."
"Thanks," Ruby nodded as she and Rarity worked to lift Jasper up. He cried out in pain, Fluttershy using her Force Healing as best she could to dull the pain. "Still upset I became a Jedi?" She asked, as they carried him through the battlefield. "If I didn't become a Jedi, Rarity wouldn't be here to save your sorry behind."
Jasper grumbled at this, as Shining shot something not too far away from them. They flinched at the explosion and continued to head towards the castle, hoping they had a clear shot to it.
Twilight and Trixie had finally reached the last room, having gotten through all the others without Solara following.
A small part of them hoped she had fallen into the hole, one less Sith they would need to deal with. "There's the exit!" Twilight cried, seeing the hole in the wall. But as they ran to it, happy to see the stone had finally cooled enough to touch, someone suddenly leapt into the room under the descending stone door.
They looked around and saw Solara, picking herself up with her Lightsaber igniting. "Give...me...the relic!" By the sound of her voice, she was not happy.
"Never!" Twilight cried, as Trixie leapt through the hole. Twilight did the same, as Solara ran towards them.
As soon as they were through the hole, they ran up the stairs towards the exit. Solara screamed as she leapt through and eventually, they were out of the tomb and back into the open air.
As soon as they were free, Twilight and Trixie turned to Solara and raised their blades.
Solara ran out of the tomb and as soon as she was clear, Twilight raised her hand. "Now we're out of there, I can use The Force to defeat you once and for all." She tried to push Solara back, but nothing happened. "Huh?"
Trixie tried to lift a nearby crystal, but it also didn't work. "What's happening?"
Solara appeared to be having the same trouble, but shrugged. "I'll figure out how to restore my power later. Once I've destroyed the two of you!" She ran forward and swung her blade at Trixie's head, the girl barely managing to lean out of the way in time.
Twilight attacked and Solara blocked her strike before pushing her back, Trixie slashing at her. Solara continued to prove that she was the better warrior, moving faster than the two and being able to easily overpower them in a Lightsaber fight.
Twilight and Trixie attacked together, but Solara deflected them so fast it was like she had two Lightsabers.
As the two were knocked away, Solara pressed something on her gauntlets. She then focused all her attention on them, as Twilight and Trixie picked themselves up. "I was expecting something more, from the students of the Jedi's top two masters. What shame, they must feel. Or maybe they just suck at teaching."
"Be quiet," Trixie growled. "Nobody badmouths my master!"
"Calm down," Twilight told her. "She's just trying to knock you off balance. Let her say what she wants. We both know it's not true." They both charged and swung their blades around, but Solara easily avoided or blocked each of their attacks. She then leapt up and spun around, the two needing to leap back to avoid getting hit in the head.
They both jumped away and as they did, Solara suddenly felt something. Something that made her hum before smiling.
Twilight and Trixie were about to charge, but suddenly found themselves getting a large piece of crystal thrown their way. "WOW!" Trixie jumped to the ground and Twilight rolled away, as more crystals started floating off the ground. "What's going on?"
Twilight looked around and saw Solara was somehow using The Force. "Did whatever happened finally wear off?" She tried to lift something herself, but it didn't work. "What's happening? We were out of there before her and we weren't in as long as she was. Why can't we use The Force?" Solara sent the crystals flying at them and the two leapt in the opposite direction to escape.
As Trixie landed near a tree, Solara used The Force to rip that tree out of the ground.
Trixie turned to see this tree and gasped, running to try and escape. But in doing so, she tripped and fell to the ground. Her Lightsaber fell from her hand and soon enough, the branches and leaves fell on top of her. "Trixie!"
Solara laughed as she turned to Twilight, who glared back at her.
The Sith picked up several small crystal chunks and had them float above her hand. "Give me the relic." Twilight did nothing and prepared to fight, as Solara threw the gems towards her.
Twilight deflected most of them with her Lightsaber, but one managed to hit her in the arm. "Gyah!" She dropped her blade and staggered back, as Solara raised her weapon.
"Last chance!" But Twilight did nothing and Solara ran forward, leaping into the air with her sword raised high. She screamed, as she fell down towards Twilight. And at the last moment, Twilight's instincts kicked in and she thrust her hands up.
The next thing Solara knew, she smashed into an invisible wall and was being thrown back by it. She screamed, as she crashed into the ground and let out a moan.
Twilight gasped, as she looked at her hands. She then realised she could once again feel The Force all around her, connecting her to everything around her. That included her Lightsaber, which she summoned to her hand as Solara picked herself up.
"So you've got your powers back," the Sith growled. "No matter. It won't be enough to save you." Twilight frowned, as she prepared to take whatever punishment Solara dished out.
But before either could attack, Twilight's gauntlet beeped. "Twilight?" She gasped at Flash's voice, "are you there? I'm picking up your signal. Hold on." Moments later, a Delta-X flew into view and circled around them. "Get away from her."
Twilight didn't need telling twice and leapt away, as Flash's ship unleashed a laser that flew down and caused the ground around Solara to explode.
The Sith screamed, as she was thrown through the air and crashed into the ground. Twilight smiled, as Flash curved around to take another pass. Twilight then noticed Solara's ship and connected to him. "Take out her fighter, so she can't escape!" The Delta-X shifted around to attack, but he was soon distracted by another issue.
More fighters appeared, except they weren't Delta-Xs.
As the Sith fighters flew down, they targeted Flash's ship and fired. Flash was able to avoid them, but this gave Solara the chance she needed. She got up and ran towards her fighter, using her gauntlet to open the cockpit and allow her to leap in.
Twilight ran towards it, hoping to cut part of the ship so it couldn't take off. But Solara seemed to anticipate this and fired a laser. Not at Twilight, but at the tree Trixie was currently trapped under.
Twilight gasped as she saw the tree beginning to catch flames, the girl forced to focus her attention on the tree. As Solara lifted off, Twilight ran over. "Hold on!" She held her hands out, using all her might to lift it. But to her horror, the tree wouldn't move. "What?" She tried again, but nothing was happening. "What's going on?"
Solara took off and as she saw Twilight attempting to save Trixie, she brought her targeting sensor online. She would destroy Twilight with a single shot.
But before she could fire, she was suddenly shot at.
She looked up and saw Flash, flying towards her and attempting to blast her out of the sky. This made her growl as she hit her thrusters and flew into the air, away from Twilight and Flash.
Flash saw her leaving and prepared to go after her, but Twilight called out through the coms. "Flash! Help!" He looked around and saw the tree catching flames. "Trixie's under there and I can't lift it."
Flash nodded and turned his attention away from Solara, allowing her to fly away. "Get back!" Twilight moved away from the tree and as Flash flew over it, he pushed his ship to full speed.
The ship accelerated and shot past them so close, he created a powerful wind that blew the tree into the air and revealed Trixie underneath.
Twilight rushed to her side and looked her over. Trixie's clothes were torn and she had a few scratches, but nothing life threatening. Twilight looked her over and sighed in relief, then turned to the sky where Solara's ship had vanished.
Up in space, Solara flew towards a destroyer that had remained hidden behind the moon.
As she flew to it, she sent out a general retreat order. The remaining ships and destroyers were all to leave the planet, as she flew up to the large ship and sent her clearance code to enter. As she did, fear began to flow through her entire being. She had failed to achieve her mission.
She thought back to when she found the podium and tried to unlock it, but the stones at the bottom had been impossible to move on her own. And when Twilight and Trixie arrived, she was forced to hide as they unlocked the puzzle. Now the relic was in their hands.
She thought about what Sombra would say, when he discovered she had failed to achieve her goal. And worse, she had allowed the Jedi to claim the prize. There was no telling how much info they could obtain from that relic. If she didn't find a way to get it back, he life would likely be forfeit.
Back on the planet, Twilight and Trixie had gotten a ride from Flash.
It appeared that as soon as Solara left, the ships attacking the planet all began to make their escape. The Delta-Xs had tried to give chase, but the ships all managed to get into hyperspace before they managed to reach their hyperdrive rings.
Down on the planet, Flash had taken Twilight and Trixie to Ruby's home. There, they met Ruby's mother Garnet. This Gemman was a brownish pink colour with purple hair, the woman allowing them to rest there whilst Trixie was looked after.
As they did, they got in contact with Luna and the others at the attacked city. "They were just trying to distract us?" Luna repeated, her face on a holographic screen as Twilight nodded.
"I'm afraid so. There was a temple here, like the one on the forest moon you first met Solara on."
"I see," Luna frowned. "That's troubling news. To think, we fell for such an obvious ploy. But you said she didn't get whatever she was after?" Twilight nodded, but realised Trixie still had the relic.
"There's more," Twilight stated. "For some reason, we were unable to use The Force in the tomb. And even after we left, my abilities have been fluctuating on and off." She spotted a small rock on the ground and reached out. The rock flew towards her and she sighed. "Hopefully, my powers are completely back.
As she said that, Trixie walked in. She was bandaged up, but looked perfectly fine.
But as she approached, Twilight's hold on the rock suddenly disappeared. "No!" She tried to lift it, but had no such luck.
"At least your powers are coming back," Trixie sighed. "I can't seem to use The Force at all." Twilight heard this and realised something.
"Wait. Every time The Force didn't work out of the tomb, I was near you." Trixie looked shocked by that, whilst Flash reached out. "I'm not saying you're the cause, but it might be something you picked up from the tomb."
"She might be right," Flash nodded. "I didn't go near that tomb and now..." He groaned, but the rock on the ground didn't budge. "I can't do anything."
Trixie frowned until she realised what Twilight was saying. "You mean that relic?" She reached into her pocket and took it out. But as she did, something else fell out as well. The gem she had gotten.
Twilight spotted the gem and picked it up, as Trixie asked Garnet to take the relic away from them for a moment. The woman left the room and as she did, Trixie tried to use The Force. But again, the rock wouldn't budge.
"Why isn't it working!?" Trixie cried, as Garnet returned.
"Because it's not the relic," Twilight stated before holding up the gem. "It's this." Trixie saw it and remembered pocketing it. "These gems were all over that tomb." She gave it to Garnet and asked her to leave and come back again. Garnet left and as she did, Trixie focused on the relic in her hand.
To their amazement, the triangle suddenly floated out of her hand. "It worked!" But then Garnet returned and the relic fell, Trixie catching it.
"I see," Luna frowned. "A gem that can cut a Jedi's connection to The Force. That's truly terrifying to hear. And will need to be looked into further. But we have more important things to discuss. The relic." Trixie held it up for her to see. Luna frowned as she stared at it. "I've never seen anything like it."
"I've never seen it in our records," Twilight agreed. "What do we do?"
"For now, we must guard it. If the Sith want it, it must be important. We'll take it back to Canterlot and keep it safe." They nodded, as Luna told them to make preparations to leave. They had won a huge battle against the Sith on this day and they had to make sure they kept the lead it had given them.
Despite now having a clue, they were still in the dark about the Sith's plans. They would need to uncover the purpose of this relic and what the Dark Side wished to do with it, for the sake of the entire Galaxy.
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A gem that can cut off the user's connection to the force? You could called them Jedi's Kryptonite.
At least, Twilight manages to get the relic from Solara… that's good news,
I hope you enjoys the chapter, guys.
Wow, that was close. And a gem that can cut the user's connection to the Force, that's almost like Baskaar armor being immune to Lightsabers. Now I'm wondering if the Sith plan on using that. If they're smart enough that is. But still...I wonder who is Solara?
Another victory for the Jedi! I can just picture Solara groveling before Sombra as she explains how she failed her mission, and begging him to give her another chance.
Twilight and Trixie did good against Solara, especially using the trap in the temple against her. Though Twilight should still count herself lucky, since she ultimately only won thanks to Flash's timely arrival. Hopefully the Jedi can figure out what's so important about the relic the Sith wanted, as well as whatever those gems that cut off someone's connection to The Force are. Though if there's one thing everyone should know about Sith artifacts, they are very dangerous and can corrupt anyone if they're not careful.
Would I be off base if I speculated that Twilight would be the one to decipher the relics and the gems?