A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

STAR WARS RWBY

EPISODE III

Trials of the Force

The Rebellion have won a major victory against the EMPIRE. Having destroyed the second DEATH STAR and the EMPEROR the EMPIRE has been left in chaos. The vacuum of power left in the EMPEROR'S wake has inspired a series of Imperial leaders all vying for control.

For the ALLAINCE it is a time of reclamation. After months of liberation missions the ALLIANCE has begun re-establishing the REPUBLIC.

For RUBY ROSE and WEISS SCHNEE it has meant a series of diplomatic missions, trying to convince star systems to join the new formed REPUBLIC. All whilst fighting off the remnants of the EMPIRE.

For YANG XIOA LONG and BLAKE BELLADONNA it has meant finding and dealing with the darker remnants of the EMPIRE…

Yang ran as if her life depended on it. Very likely because it did. Blake managed to stay ahead of her, she too running as fast as she could. Behind them the familiar clunking of the AT-ST got louder and louder as it approached. The streets of the spaceport were just big enough for it to continue, and no matter how many times Blake and Yang had ducked into a side street or alley, it kept finding them. "It's still coming!" Yang shouted as she glanced over her shoulder, the walker now swivelling its chin mounted laser cannons. "We're nearly there!" Blake shouted back. The walker fired its twin red bolts, hitting a parked speeder off to Yang's left. Raising an arm to shield herself from the shrapnel of the exploding speeder she found herself getting thrown from her feet by the force of the blast. Landing with a thud on the other side of the street Yang looked up to see the cannons now pointed directly at her. "So much for stealth," Yang said as she scrambled to her feet, quickly jumping out of the way of another of the walkers shots.

Blake turned to see her partner once again be sent flying. "Dammit Yang," Blake cursed as she turned to face the walker. Reaching down Blake went for her lightsaber, only to remember they hadn't brought them. Instead she drew her blaster and started firing to gain the AT-ST's attention.

The walker swivelled to aim at Blake, giving Yang time to draw a thermal detonator and arm it. Rolling it towards the walker Yang jumped to her feet and ran, motioning for Blake to run as well. The walker fired and Blake somersaulted backwards, narrowly avoiding the bolts.

The thermal detonator went off, a massive explosion tearing upwards and through he walker. Yang caught up to Blake, pushing her towards the ship. "I have a feeling it's going to be a bit more difficult to leave than it was to get here," Yang quipped as she raced into the hangar.

"Whatever do you mean, I'm pretty sure setting off a thermal detonator in the streets, destroying an Imperial walker, breaking into a governors manor, wouldn't give anyone cause to want us dead," Blake said sardonically. Yang smirked as she ran onto the Ember's ramp,

"Well, at least we got the info we came for."

"It could just be another dead end," Blake said as they both rushed towards the cockpit.

"I got a good feeling about this one,"

"I hope you're right." The pair started prepping the ship for takeoff, Blake having finally picked up a little more piloting knowledge. The freighter lifted off the ground, the donut esq. shaped YT-2400 shooting upwards into the sky. "Look's like I was right, that Imperial Star destroyer we saw on the way in is moving into an intercept position," Yang said as she powered up the deflector shields.

"You're a good pilot, but getting past that thing is going to be tough," Blake said warily. Yang frowned,

"Hey it's me, this will be easy."

"We're not going back to Chandrilla are we?" Blake asked,

"Not just yet, we're going to take a more roundabout route for safety, maybe stop in with Ruby and Weiss first. For now let's just focus on the Star destroyer."

The Ember broke through the atmosphere into space, the star destroyer immediately trying to hail them. Ignoring the messages Yang pushed the ship as hard as it could go. The guns started firing, green bolts trying to keep up with the fast moving freighter. The ship bounced as it took a hit to its underside. Yang snarled, swerving through the streams of fire. "Their tractor beam is powering up," Blake warned, "And here come the TIE fighters."

"Just focus on entering those hyperspace coordinates," Yang said as the ship once again absorbed shots from the star destroyer.

"Ready to go when you are," Blake said as she finished typing in the coordinates. Yang pulled the lever down and the Ember disappeared into hyperspace.

Blake sat in the common room of the ship, reading over the information they had stolen from the Imperial governor. "Have we found her?" Yang asked as she wiped away grease from her hands, having just finished a few repairs. "Not yet," Blake said in defeat, "But we were right, she is amassing support, soon she might even be able to challenge some of the Moff's."

"That's the last thing this galaxy needs," Yang said, sounding just as worried as Blake. Blake stared at the numbers, the Imperial governor was one of Cinder's pawns, and had access to some of the information on her capabilities. The small fleet she had gathered was no threat to the New Republic, but in time it could very well become one. It seemed Cinder's visions had come true, and if she was not stopped, she could very well become another Emperor. "We can defeat her Blake," Yang said as she noticed Blake's melancholy take hold.

"I don't know Yang, you remember Menagerie. She can only have grown stronger, and with an army at her back I can only imagine the horrors she will be capable of." Yang sat down next to Blake, the dark haired girl resting her head on Yang's shoulder. "If we can do this, then it's over Blake. With Cinder gone, we will have done our part, made sure there were no loose ends to come back and haunt either of us."

"Then what? We go find a nice planet to settle down?"

"Definitely not, there are still a lot of places to see, adventures to be had. We'll wander, explore the galaxy, only this time without the threat of the Empire, or Cinder." The two sat silently for a long time, relaxing after the days stressful turn. "We're going to need help with Cinder Yang." Blake said, breaking the silence and moving from Yang's shoulder, Yang sighed, knowing where Blake was going with her line of thoughts. "Ruby has the potential, she's like you Yang, strong in the Force, the three of us could easily deal with her."

"No, I keep telling you, I'm not getting her involved in this. Look at us, the Force hasn't exactly made our lives easier has it?"

"You can't ignore it Yang, she is always going to have that power. If you don't teach her, she might become like you were when we met." Yang shook her head,

"She's not like me, she'll be fine, her life is dangerous enough as it is." Blake gave up, tired of trying to push the issue. "We're a few hours out from Weiss' ship, so get some rest," Yang said as she headed back to the cockpit.

Yang fell asleep in her chair. She was awakened suddenly by a flashing red light, and the violent quaking of the ship. Snapping out of her rest she quickly scanned the ships systems, "Oh karabast." The ship spun as it was ripped from hyperspace, Yang grimacing as her stomach churned. She immediately spied the Interdictor cruiser, sitting there waiting for them. Blake rushed into the cockpit, still wiping sleep from her eyes, "Sithspawn, we're in trouble," she said as she plonked down in the co-pilots seat.

"Go get in one of the turrets, we are going to need to shoot our way out of this," Yang said as she tried to count the amount of TIE's that were howling towards them. Blake nodded and got up, heading down to the guns. Hopping on the gun wells comm Blake asked, "What's the plan?"

"Honestly, I have no idea." Yang's thoughts were interrupted by an incoming transmission. Against her usual protocol of ignoring Imperial messages, Yang accepted.

"Freighter Ember, please submit to Atlas authority. If you come quietly no harm will come to you or your ship," came an oddly familiar voice, though Yang had no idea where she had heard it before. Yang laughed,

"Yeah, that's not going to happen, I don't do the whole going quietly thing very well." Yang shut off the comms as the TIE's came close and Blake started firing.

Pass after pass, the Ember absorbed more and more hits. Blake blasted away several TIE's, but the pair were simply outnumbered. Eventually the shields failed, "Blake, get to the escape pod! They just hit our engines!" Blake jumped off the turret and headed back into the ship. Running past the cockpit she shouted, "What are you doing, come on!"

"Gimme a moment, I'm sending a distress beacon," Yang replied, panels sparking and shattering around her, quickly she strapped the datachip with all the info they had on Cinder onto the control panel. "Done," Yang said as she rose from her chair, Blake feeling the waves of anger and sadness as the ship fell apart around Yang.

The escape pod detached from the freighter, both Yang and Blake looking back to see the TIE's blast several more holes in the ship. Yang felt her rage swell, the rush, the power of the darkside begging her to unleash it to save her ship. She shut her eyes, focusing on her breathing. "It'll be alright Yang," Blake said as she rested a hand on her partners back. Above them the hangar bay of the Interdictor cruiser slowly engulfed them.

Ruby gripped the hilt of her father's lightsaber. The familiar metal was still cool in her hands as she swung it around in practice. Despite her pleading with Yang and Blake, neither had wanted to even mention anything Jedi related, let alone help her train with her lightsaber. For whatever reason they both avoided the issue, claiming to know little, even though Ruby felt that was not true. She knew Blake used to be some sort of evil Jedi in service to the Empire, and that Yang had used her father's lightsaber before giving it to her.

Unlike before, when she was trapped on Hoth, or on the run from the Empire, she now had ample time to learn more about her what her father had been. Especially with Weiss being so absorbed by the various missions they had been busy with of late.

Despite her insistence, despite having been able to travel the galaxy and investigate, she had found very little. The talk of the Rebellion, now Republic, was that Luke Skywalker claimed to be a Jedi, having defeated Vader and the Emperor on board the second Death Star. What that really meant, not many people understood.

All she had was her father's weapon, the only link, the only memento of her family. "Commander Ruby, report to the bridge," A voice said over the ships intercom, forcing Ruby to deactivate her saber. Moving quickly through the ships hallways Ruby nodded and waved to the various crew that she passed along the way. Entering the bridge Ruby was greeted by the familiar sight of Weiss ordering around her staff. "Go ahead and prepare the shuttle, set up a fighter escort as well, nothing spectacular though, just a pair of fighters, but keep scanning, we are very close to several Imperial holdouts." Weiss said as her aid quickly tapped away on their datapad before running off to follow the orders. Weiss looked up to see Ruby dressed in her more casual training gear. "Ruby," Weiss said as she stared down at her datapad. Her eyes flicked up to see Ruby in the tight training outfit she wore, causing her to stutter a bit. "Uh, I was just wondering if you could get some fighters ready for an escort,"

"Sure thing, I'll get Jaune on it." Ruby waited for Weiss to continue, who instead returned to her datapad. "Anything else?" Ruby asked suggestively, hoping for at least some idle conversation from her partner, whom she had barely seen of late. "No, that is all," Weiss said dismissively. Ruby frowned, pulling Weiss away off the bridge, "W-what are you doing?"

"We need to talk,"

"About what?" Weiss said as Ruby moved them into a more private area of the bridge. Ruby crossed her arms, still frowning,

"Weiss, would it hurt you to just spend some time at least pretending to care about me? I feel like I haven't seen you in days, and when I do all you want is sleep, or to order me around."

"I'm sorry that I have a lot of work to do, and of course I care about you, if you haven't noticed though, re-establishing the Republic has been a little time consuming." Weiss said brashly, annoyed by Ruby's apparent ignoring of the responsibilities that had been placed on her. "So this job is more important than us," Ruby said gesturing to the both of them. Weiss looked taken aback,

"Well of course, it's the future of the galaxy, of course it's more important!" Weiss said loudly, drawing subtle looks from all the other officers on the bridge. Ruby scowled now, throwing her hands up and walking away. "What! What did I say!" Weiss called after her, quickly glancing at her crew, all suddenly ignoring the fight that had occurred between their captain and lead flight officer.

Ruby was woken by another message on her datapad, once again from Weiss. The first had been a half assed attempt at an apology, one that Ruby ignored. This one however caught Ruby's attention, forcing her up and out of her bunk. Running through the halls, this time empty, Ruby headed back towards the bridge. Sprinting through the automatic doors Ruby found Weiss standing alone over a glowing command station. "What's wrong?" Ruby asked looking over Weiss' shoulder at the screen. "It's your sister, we just picked up a distress signal from the Ember,"

"What are we waiting for, they need our help," Ruby said as she moved immediately towards the hangar bay.

"Ruby wait, it was probably Imperials, we need to secure this planet before we move out,"

"It doesn't matter, it's my sister, it's Blake. I gotta help them,"

"Ruby, I hate to do this, it's too risky to attempt a rescue. We only have this ship, and this sector is still crawling with Imperials. Once we have secured the help of this planet we can go after them, but until that time I'm not going to risk the ship." Ruby stopped in her tracks, fists clenching,

"What's happened to you? It's like you think your back in with the Empire, it's like you forgot that your friends, your family, are important. We may not be a Rebellion anymore, but every one of us is worth something, no one is expendable."

"Ruby," Weiss said solemnly, clearly hurt. Ruby closed her eyes in frustration,

"I know that you've always striven for peace. Even when we first met, that's what you wanted. Now you have to choose between your, mission, your peace, or the people you care about."

"Would you really sacrifice everything we fought for, to save me? To help Yang? We are representing the Republic now. Do you want more war, did you like spending everyday fighting to survive? Did you have to kill your own father?!" Weiss shouted, now nearly in tears. Ruby looked on the verge as well,

"I grew up without my family, I grew up surrounded by war. I fought for the people I loved, and I always will."

"And I will make hard decisions to protect what we have." Ruby stalked off the bridge, heading back to her room to pack. Weiss fell back against the command panel, sliding down to the ground. She had killed her father, whilst not a particularly amiable man, nothing would change the fact that he had raised her. So Weiss did what she did best, throwing herself into her work. Only now did she realise the cost of repressing her feelings.

Ruby prepped her fighter, running the final checks before going after Yang. "Thought you could leave without us?" Jaune said as he led the rest of Ace squadron, all dressed and ready to fly, as well as the Faunus commando team. smRuby iled warmly at them, "Guys, I can't ask you to come with me. There is still a job to be done here,"

"Yeah well screw that, it's Yang and Blake." Sun said as he strapped on his helmet,

"Yeah, they're our friends," Velvet said with a humble determination. Ruby's smile only widened, embarrassed by the dedication of her friends.

"I can't take the entire squadron and the trooper complement just to go after my sister. I'll go find her and be back in no time. So I'm ordering you guys to stay,"

"You sure Ruby? We would be glad to tag along," Neptune asked. Ruby shook her head,

"I promise I'll be fine," Ruby said as her astromech droid, R2-Z1 was lowered into its slot on her red and black X-wing. The grey R2 unit beeped an all clear, "Well of course I couldn't leave you behind Zwei." With a final wave Ruby started up her ship. Everyone watched as Ruby lifted off and out of the hangar, the X-wing flying away from the planet before blinking out of existence and into hyperspace.

"Excellent work Winter, we are very pleased with your progress of late, you are on your way to becoming as excellent commander as your father was." Ironwood said with a genuine smile,

"Yes, you shall make for a fine leader, something that the Empire needs now more than ever." Cinder said as she continued to watch over the shipyards that sprawled out before them. "The Atlas facilities are quite impressive; Grand Moff Schnee spoke of its efficiency, and it appears he was not exaggerating." Cinder smiled as she noticed Winter immediately perk up at the mention of her father. Winter was an effective tool, with Cinder's careful guidance she could shape the girl into a more powerful tool than even Ironwood was now. She could be a legitimate successor to her father, solidifying a claim on the remnants of the Empire, giving Cinder the control she had foreseen.

"Transfer the prisoners over to my ship. Winter, I would very much like to talk with you as well, I'm very impressed with how you have handled yourself, I have an important mission for you. As well as many more stories I can tell you of your father," Cinder saying the last part in an almost motherly tone.

"I would be very grateful," Winter said proudly. Cinder nodded, allowing her to leave. Ironwood, the leader of the Atlesian planetary defence force, and now a leader in Cinder's Empire.

"From what I know you barely knew the man," Ironwood commented from beside Cinder, he too looking out over the shipyards.

"It doesn't matter, that man was horribly irritating. She wants to hear that he was a great leader, and that she should follow in her footsteps. I can use that, create the weapon I need, one that is as deadly as the Grand Moff was, but without his needless obsessions. I can cement her loyalty to me, and in turn cement the rest of the Empires loyalty to her."

"And what about me? I was promised the power that the Grand Moff denied me, a chance to shape the galaxy, and not just this planet." Cinder turned to him with a wicked smile, caressing his cheek softly,

"My dear James, you shall receive the glory and power you rightfully deserve." Ironwood straightened, freezing at the uncomfortable and unprofessional closeness of Cinder. "Now, if you can excuse me, I have prisoners that I am dying to see." Cinder marched away, gesturing to her handmaiden, the partially robotic Neo, to follow. Her battle with Yang had left her with a cybernetic arm, eye and leg, and an overdeveloped sense of vengeance.

"You can feel her presence can't you?" Cinder asked as she headed towards where her star destroyer was docked with the space station. Neo grinned, robotic eye sparkling red. "You'll get your time with her, I just need to ask a few questions first. Then she is all yours."

Yang struggled against the restraints, her arms and legs bound to the hovering table. Beside her Blake tried to relax, reaching out with her senses. "Can you use the force to get these restraints off?" Yang asked, Blake shook her head,

"Too complex, I can't figure out the mechanism."

"Darn," Yang said as she once again pushed against her restraints. The door to the holding room opened and Winter stepped inside.

"It's no use Rebel, those restraints are of the highest quality," she said boastfully. Yang glared,

"What now Schnee, I have to deal with your little sister enough as it is, then I learn there is another one left," Yang said dramatically.

"There are no other Schnee's, Weiss is nothing. I am the last Schnee,"

"You're not a real Schnee though are you?" Blake asked, an understanding suddenly hitting her.

"W-what are you talking about, I am Winter Schnee, heir to my fathers, and the Empires, legacy," she said, caught off-guard by the comment. Blake smiled pitifully at her,

"Wake up Winter, you know what you are, and you know you can never be what they say." Winter scowled, looking truly furious, storming out of the cell. Yang raised an eyebrow at Blake,

"What was that?"

"Feel her with the force," Blake responded, returning to her meditative state. Yang did as Blake suggested, going through her usual techniques that she had developed. She was not as fast as Blake, but slowly she was able to more easily tap into the force consciously, able to use it with more precision. She touched the minds of the stormtroopers, the minds of the surround engineers, and finally the mind of Winter. It felt, different, not unlike that of an alien mind. Yet unlike an alien mind, each race having its own unique feel based on the biology and culture of the particular alien, there was no one thing that Yang could pinpoint as being off. It simply felt wrong.

"What is she?" Yang asked, disgust seeping into her tone.

"I've only felt that a few times, around the few clone troopers the Empire retained."

"She's a clone," Yang said still processing the thought. "Of Weiss,"

"I think so, definitely looks like her, although I'm surprised she never mentioned it."

"She mustn't know… Stars! Her father made a clone of her?!" Yang said in complete disgust now.

"Accelerated ageing, and training. Easily manipulated and controlled, she would have been the daughter Weiss' father always wanted," Blake said thoughtfully. Yang shook her head,

"That's wrong, and it means they have access to cloning facilities."

"Which means whoever is running this operation is an incredibly serious threat,"

"I just wonder-" Yang stopped, eyes growing wide and turning to face Blake. Blake had a similar expression, both feeling the wall of malice moving towards their cell. The door slid open and Yang and Blake met the yellow eyes of Cinder Fall.

Ruby pulled herself out of hyperspace as she reached the location of the Ember's distress beacon. After having spent several long hours waiting in her cockpit, Ruby stretched to make sure she was alert. Bursting out of hyperspace she looked into the empty stars, no planets in site. Zwei made a drawn out, low and sad tone as he found the wreckage of the Ember. Ruby felt her fear rising as she slowed to hover near the battered freighter. Several holes had been burned through he hull, leaving a lot of it charred black. Bits of debris that had come off the ship drifted nearby. Zwei reported no life signs to be found aboard the vessel, as well as no organic material similar to human remains. "All right I'm going to get on board, keep the engines warm and give me warning if anyone else comes into the system okay Zwei?" Ruby asked, Zwei gurgling a warning to be careful but also an acknowledgement of his role. Ruby drifted closer to the freighter, strapping on her breather and unsealing the cockpit. Unstrapping herself Ruby kicked off her fighter towards the Ember.

Floating in through one of the holes in the ship, crawling down into the familiar corridors. Knocking aside the various things that now floated aimlessly. Making her way to the cockpit Ruby pulled herself down into Yang's seat. Activating the ships logs, running on the battery that operated as the ships blackbox, Ruby read through the events that had led to the ships demise. Ruby felt a sinking feeling as her fears were given legitimacy. The Empire had her, and Ruby had no idea if that meant Yang was alive or dead. She shook herself out of the depression; she had to believe Yang was alive.

Ruby stopped herself when she found a small data chip taped to the controls. Picking it up Ruby studied the device. Before she had a chance to plug it into the Ember's computer Zwei screeched a warning over her comm. "What is it?" Ruby asked as she pushed herself back up through the ship towards her fighter. Zwei let out a series of quick chirps and warbles, "not good," Ruby said as she drifted out of the freighter and saw the Lancer class frigate appear in the distance. Climbing into her fighter and reengaging the interior atmosphere Ruby pulled off her breather, speeding away from the oncoming frigate. "What is a ship like that doing out here? Thought they were only used for planetary defence? Must have been monitoring the area." Zwei warbled another warning, picking up several TIE fighter signatures. "Don't worry about them we'll just make a quick jump out of here," Zwei beeped, starting to calculate the jump back to the Whiterose. "We can't go back right away Zwei, if they track us to the ship they could bring company and jeopardize Weiss' diplomatic mission."

Zwei chattered nervously, trying to find a nearby system that didn't pose any threat. Ruby's sensors lit up as her the TIE's now came within range of firing. Flicking a switch ruby sent her power to her rear shields, just as several green bolts flew past her cockpit. "Zwei just pick a place already! See if there is anything in this thing," Ruby said as she shoved the data chip into a port in her cockpit. Zwei went silent as Ruby swerved and ducked under continued fire of the TIE's. Suddenly a series of numbers danced across Ruby's screen, appearing to be hyperspace coordinates. Zwei engaged the hyperdrive immediately, the X-wing jumping away and leaving the TIE's without a target.

Ruby once again sat impatiently in her cockpit, Zwei having gone silent and refused to break that silence after reading through the data chips information. SO Ruby waited, hoping that Zwei hadn't sent her somewhere stupid, dangerous or both. Zwei came to life after three hours of silence, apparently having had trouble processing all the information. Chattering excitedly over the information Ruby had trouble making out anything. "Calm down Zwei, slowly, tell me slowly." Before Zwei could respond Ruby's fighter dropped out of hyperspace, the sight before her causing Ruby to stare in shock an fear. The space station was as unchanged. Built into a large asteroid the turbolasers remained in pieces as Ruby had left them. It appeared lifeless, seeming like something from a bad, bad dream. Somehow, for some reason, the information chip that Yang had possession of included the location of the prisoner where Ruby had performed her first Rebellion mission, where she had freed an old friend. More than anything, it was the place where Ruby had found her mother.

AND EPISODE 3 BEGINS! This is it guys the big finale episode. I don't think I have been as excited for anything relating to this story as I am for the rest of this episode. You have all been amazing in your support and in dealing with the more complicated elements of my life, just knowing you guys are out there has been really helpful. So please send in reviews, good or bad, suggestions ect. I might do a few interlude chapters here and there or do segments at the start or end of chapters because I still have so many ideas for those, for the most part though Epiosde 3 is the focus. I will try and keep any spoilers from the new movie (which is amazing) from the story, I doubt even if I wanted to spoil things, the time in which this story is set (months after Return of the Jedi) will mean I won't have to worry brining anything up that is directly related to the movie. Of course for those who look carefully enough, hints and teases will likely come up every once and a while. Enough rambling though, thanks for reading and until...

NEXT TIME: Ruby faces her past! And Weiss faces her future!