The Mandalorian Rebel

Chapter 22

Guten Tag everyone! Well this is the last chapter of the Mandalorian Rebel, but don't fret, the sequel will be coming soon. Just do me a favor and don't forget about me if it takes some time, I need to brainstorm some ideas for it, but fear not, I am not quitting. I hope you like the final chapter of the Mandalorian Rebel, it has been a grand adventure for me and a joy to have so many accompanying me on the road, giving me the strength to write another chapter. I thank you all.

A/N: Time to announce the contest winners, now some of you gave me extra pairings so if you have an X by your name, you earned the extra credit. And to my joy many participated and all won:

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville X

Guest (Now review as Akaan Cadet) X

SPARTAN – 626 X

Vakama X

Burke23 X

FallenFanboy

Ichichi05 X

The Horned King II

Congrats to you all! For those of you who haven't won a contest until now, welcome to Clan Akaan (salutes)

Disclaimer: Star Wars Rebels is property of Disney, all I own are my OCs, and Yitzhak belongs to the Horned King II.

Leonidas and Sabine were returning from their first date, the shuttle they flew was still in hyperspace and the navicomputer read that they would arrive at Dantooine in approximately 10 minutes. The Mando duo had the biggest smiles on their faces, it was truly a fun day for them, peaceful stargazing and good food at a diner run by friendly and good people, it seemed like a Utopia to them. Both Leonidas and Sabine knew that the day wouldn't last and they made the best they could from the day off they were given, and they made personal notes to thank Kanan or whoever had the idea, Sabine theorized it was the whole crew and her boyfriend found himself agreeing with her.

"It was nice while it lasted." Leonidas said with a content smile, "The first and most likely last day off for us, now it is back to training and freeing this galaxy."

"The usual things in our daily routine." Sabine joked; making Leonidas laugh.

"Can't wait to get back to some training." Leonidas stated, "I appreciated the day off, but training back at base and fighting the Empire is our top priority."

Sabine nodded in agreement.

"How do you think the mission went?" Leonidas asked; worry was in his voice.

"I have faith that they are doing fine, Leo." Sabine used Leonidas's nickname.

Leonidas was only slightly reassured by her words, even Sabine herself was still worried. To protect the weak and fight with honor is the Mandalorian code, a code that Mandalorian's abided by until the day they died.

The shuttle finally exited hyperspace and began to descend upon Dantooine with Leonidas piloting it. As they began to approach the base, they noted that the Reapers' Claw was still missing.

"Guess we beat them here." Sabine stated.

"Indeed." Leonidas concurred.

Once the shuttle landed, the Mandos exited the boarding ramp, as they did so Leonidas looked at the blaster pistol he took with him; more specifically at the trigger.

"Never thought I'd live to see the day when I never had to pull this trigger." Leonidas told Sabine.

"There is a first time for everything." Sabine responded.

Before the conversation could proceed any further, the sound of a ship's engine broke the tranquility. The two rebels looked up to see the Reapers' Claw was beginning to land. The Mandos had to cover their eyes a bit due to the ship's landing spotlight, the crew that remained behind came away from whatever they were engaged in and ran to join Leonidas and Sabine to await the crew members who went on the mission. A few of them quickly asked the Mandalorians how the date went, to which they responded with a quick thumbs up, since the engines got closer as the spaceship descended so it was very difficult to hear each other. When the engines finally died down the ramp dropped and revealed the cadets, all looking weary and bruised. McCoy was carrying a tired Alena bridal style; it was a good thing the crew saw she was breathing otherwise they may have thought she was dead. Ezra had his arm around Rosa's shoulders for support as she got him to the medical bay; after seeing the scars on Ezra's face, Hera immediately followed them to the medical bay so she could stitch up the wounds. The rest either used a metal pipe as a makeshift crutch or just walked with notable weariness in their stride.

"What happened?!" Jarvis asked in shock.

"It was an ambush", Jacob spoke, "Just as we predicted."

"But something tells me, no ordinary Imperial did that." Yitzhak asked as he pointed to the claw marks on his son's stomach area, luckily the claw marks didn't cut through the armor.

"Looks more like an animal's doing." Jarvis observed, squinting his one good eye.

"They, walked like men, but they most certainly didn't think like men." Zeb said as he limped down the ramp.

"In my days as an Imperial, I never saw any records of any troops that act like Sandpeople." Jarvis stated, a puzzled look on his face.

"Whoever, or whatever they were, worked for the Dark Assassin, his name is Starkiller." Kanan spoke as he walked down the ramp in a visibly tired state; those troopers took more a toll than originally thought.

The crew that had remained behind had their eyes wide open.

"How do you know this, sir?" Cortez asked suspiciously.

"Because of this message he left with Jelkin's corpse." Kanan replied as he revealed the holocom left by Starkiller, "I was hoping I could show it to the Mandalorians of this group, perhaps they could make some sense of it."

"What about Maximus and Johnson?" Jarvis asked.

"Right here, and no, we are not familiar with the savages that attacked the cadets." Maximus spoke up as he walked down the platform.

"No records of it either." Johnson added.

"We were hoping that maybe you've seen them before, or are familiar with their tech." Zeb said.

Leonidas nodded.

"Alright then", Kanan stated before shouting, "All cadets get some sleep, you've earned it!"

"Yes sir!"

All the cadets moved into their bunks and fell asleep the minute they laid down. McCoy carried Alena to her bunk and carefully placed her on the bed. McCoy removed her helmet along with his own and placed them on the center table of the room. McCoy looked at Alena's sleeping form and smiled, he leaned down and gave her a peck on the forehead before going to his bunk and dozing off. Little did McCoy know was that Alena's eyes fluttered open and she knew about the kiss McCoy gave her on the forehead, a smile slowly formed on her face before falling back to sleep.

Meanwhile in the medical bay, Hera was wearing a pair of goggles that were scanning Ezra's wounds with medical optics, the very same used by medical droids; it was another one of Cortez's gadgets.

"These are definitely claw marks", Hera said while jotting notes on a datapad, "That's odd…"

"What is it Hera?" Rosa asked a little worried.

"The amount of bacteria in Ezra's wounds is very low", Hera said as Rosa sighed in relief, "Whatever clawed you kept its talons clean."

"Some stitches are needed though", Hera said as she took out an injection capsule, "I'm going to give you some anesthetic."

"Alright, let's get this over with." Ezra said.

Hera injected the anesthetic into Ezra's neck, the young man didn't even flinch. Rosa smiled at this. Hera took out a needle and thread and waited for 3 minutes so the anesthetic could take effect, after the time elapsed she began to stitch the gashes up.

"Sorry we don't have any proper sleeping agents, Ezra." Hera apologized to the cadet.

"No need to apologize at all, besides this isn't too bad." Ezra said after wincing a bit as another stitch was sown in.

"Well consider yourself lucky", Hera stated as she sew another stitch in, "Another three centimeters and this slash would have gone through your left eye."

Hera pointed at the top claw mark, it just barely missed Ezra's eye.

"Well, then I guess I'm thankful luck was on my side." Ezra stated as he winced again as the first slash was finally stitched up.

"Those things were insane", Ezra stated as Hera began to stich up his second slash mark, "Attacking with their bare hands."

"Never heard of an Imperial that does that." Hera said as she sowed in another stitch.

"Maximus said the same thing." Rosa giggled.

"So he did." Hera stated before sowing in another stitch, "What did they look like, out of curiosity?"

"They were around Kanan's height." Rosa replied.

"Pale skin". Ezra added.

"Kaleesh skull-like helmets, with razor claws." Rosa continued the list.

"And a tattoo on their arms, it looked like the Empire's symbol of loyalty, but it wasn't the normal black, it was orange." Ezra finished.

"Interesting." Hera said with a curious look on her face.

"Are you familiar with it?" Rosa asked; Hera shook her head in response.

"No, I'll look into it later." Hera replied.

After a minute of silence, the second slash was stitched up and Rosa changed the subject.

"How'd you learn to do stitches like that?" Rosa asked Hera curiously.

"Ryloth, not many medical centers there, so I had to learn to take care of my own wounds, no matter the size." Hera explained.

"Well, it has certainly come in handy on many occasions." Ezra spoke up before wincing as another stitch was sown in. Hera just smiled softly.

"How about you Rosa? Any wounds I should see?" Hera asked.

"I appreciate your concern Hera, but no, just some bruises, nothing major." Rosa answered.

"You are just like Sabine, brushing off bruises like it is nothing, a valuable trait indeed." Hera said as she finished the final stitch and began to bandage it in a way that let the stitches heal and allowed Ezra to see properly so it wouldn't hinder any training.

"Thanks Hera." Ezra thanked the Twi'lek.

"You are welcome, now off to bed you two, Yitzhak doesn't allow breaks." Hera said teasingly, like a mother to her children. The two cadets saluted and left for their bunks.

Yitzhak and Jacob; being father and son, shared a bunk room. The two chatted every night over the events of the respective day. This time it was about the frightful mission involving the Terror Troopers.

"Any damages, son?" Yitzhak asked as he took off the heavy parts of his armor; he slept in the light parts.

"Just a few bruises, nothing too severe." Jacob replied to his father.

"What exactly happened?" Yitzhak asked as he sharpened his blade.

"These savage troopers." Jacob explained, "They had clawed hands, with Kaleesh helmets, I even saw one's face, it was incredibly deformed and his eyes were partially yellow, and his skin was unnaturally pale."

"Hmm, that deformed face you spoke of, conditions like that can only be produced two ways." Yitzhak contemplated, "Either from mismatched breeding, or unsuccessful cloning. My money is on the latter."

"I thought the Empire didn't allow clones that were deformed into their ranks, they just served as maintenance." Jacob stated.

"Normally yes, but based upon your description of these wild troopers' behavior it would seem that the template used to clone them is not an ordinary man." Yitzhak continued his hypothesis, "Jango Fett's DNA is not enough for the Empire now, and they are using another donner in addition to Jango's DNA."

"This is a pretty elaborate statement, what made you make it?" Jacob asked.

"Son, you should know me, I'm Yitzhak Diluvium." Yitzhak made a rare joke, "I'm going to find Leonidas."

Yitzhak left as Jacob fell asleep.

Meanwhile in the briefing room…..

Leonidas had just finished watching the recording that the cadets saw on the cruiser, he now knew that the Dark Apprentice wasn't a lie, he was all too real. Sabine took note of the lightsabers on the Sith's belt.

"Someone has amassed quite a collection." Sabine noted as she pointed towards the belt full of the sabers.

"He's the one who killed Jelkin", Leonidas asked Kanan to clarify the message; Kanan gave a nod.

Cortez was the one playing the message on the main terminal for his Rebel brethren and he noticed something.

"Sirs, there appears to be more to the message!" Cortez spoke up as he pointed to the flashing green light, indicating that another piece of recording has been recovered.

"What could it be?" Maximus asked.

"Shall I play it?" Cortez asked Kanan.

"Yes." Kanan confirmed.

"Okay, and here we…. Go." Cortez said as he booted up the remaining recording.

Starkiller rematerialized as a hologram once more and had a new message.

"This message was set to play if the holocom left the cruiser, and since it did that means you survived my Terror troopers. Congratulations, not many face them and live to tell the tale."

Johnson entered the room and watched the recording beside Cortez without saying a word.

"You may have won this battle, but I assure you, you haven't won the war. The Terror Troopers are merely a taste of what is coming, I am coming for you, and I will watch your rebellion burn for disrupting the peace this Empire has maintained for years."

Zeb walked in and watched the hologram and listened carefully.

"I will see to it personally that your rebel cells crumble as fast as Jelkin did. Your tenacity is to be admired, but your ways are to be scorned. You may have liberated Lothal successfully but now the Empire will show you what we are truly capable of, I've been waiting for an opportunity like this so we can add this Rebellion to the history books. You can run, but I will find you, you can fight but I will kill you, you can surrender and I will torture you, and you can beg but I will not listen. The Emperor's bidding, will be carried out upon your pitiful rebellion. Enjoy this victory while you can, rebel scum, it will be your last."

The hologram faded away and the room fell silent.

"What do you think of this, Kanan?" Cortez asked, but the Jedi remained silent.

"Boss?" Johnson asked.

"Get a message to the other rebel cells." Kanan spoke softly, his eyes on where the hologram used to be.

Everyone looked at their leader.

"There is a storm coming." Kanan continued, "They need to be ready for it."

"Yes sir."

"We are no longer isolated from this war, the Empire is no longer regarding us as rebels, now they regard us as threats." Yitzhak said to the group.

"And they are sending their best soldiers to fight and their deadliest hunter to lead the charge." Sabine stated softly; everyone was still recovering from the message.

"The Inquisitor may be dead, but this Assassin has taken his place." Leonidas murmured.

After the crew went to sleep, Kanan quietly snuck into the Ghost and into his room. He looked back to make sure he wasn't followed, and once he was sure he was alone he took out the drawer underneath his bunk containing the Jedi Holocron and opened it. He used the force and activated the holocron revealing Obi-Wan Kenobi who began to recite a code:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force.

Kanan spoke in sync with the Jedi Council member, the Jedi Code. Kanan didn't do it every day, but he did do it when he needed to calm himself down or put his mind at ease. And his mind needed it now more than ever, if the assassin could kill multiple Jedi, then he would be the greatest challenge the Rebellion has ever faced.

The Bain of the Phantasms was sailing through hyperspace, and Starkiller was on the bridge with his arms crossed. An officer approached him and bowed.

"My lord, the holocom's second message was played." The officer reported.

"So they survived, I am impressed." Starkiller chuckled as he turned to face the officer.

"My lord, if you don't mind me asking, why did we use an untraceable frequency in the holocom?" the officer asked with a gulp.

"Well, the war is young officer, there is no honor in fighting enemies who have just been weakened." Starkiller replied a bit cryptically, "I don't care what Vader says, I am not like the Inquisitor or him, without honor there is no victory."

The officer nodded and left to attend to his other duties. A Stalker Soldier was apparently waiting for Starkiller to finish his discussion with the Officer, as he walked up to the Sith and saluted.

"My lord, you have a message from Lord Vader." The trooper told the assassin respectfully.

"Best I don't keep him waiting." Starkiller stated before walking to the ship's Holo chamber.

The two soldiers guarding it saluted their leader as he walked by, and into the dark Holo chamber, as a hologram of Darth Vader materialized, Starkiller kneeled before it.

"My master, you summoned me?" Starkiller asked the cyborg.

"Your actions in the Ralltiir system have left the Emperor both pleased and disappointed." The black caped Sith said in his usual dark voice, "He is pleased that you successfully killed Jelkin Pondrei and won us the planet Ralltiir as a result."

"Then pray tell, how have I disappointed our Emperor?" Starkiller asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice; he already knew what it was.

"You told the rebels who you were and even congratulated them on killing your Terror Troopers that is what has disappointed both the emperor and me." Vader said venomously.

"They deserve my respect for defeating them, they are an enemy who is worthy of my time." Starkiller explained, "I wanted them to know that I am not taking them lightly like our previous troops have."

"What matters right now is striking down these dissidents for opposing the Empire's rule." Vader growled.

"And make them martyrs? I think not, master." Starkiller disagreed, "If we murder them in cold blood, then their deaths will only rally others to join their cause. I have bigger plans."

"PLANS! You do not have plans, you have orders!" Vader boomed; it would scare most, but Starkiller only chuckled at the outburst.

"Indeed I do, to put out this now bonfire of a rebellion that the rebels sparked. But in order to prevent this bonfire from spreading into a wildfire, we must be patient." Starkiller explained calmly.

"Know your place, apprentice!" Vader was beginning to lose his temper; but Starkiller wasn't even intimidated, "You are my subordinate!"

"The wise benefit from a second opinion." Starkiller chuckled; despite being much younger, he was still very smart, "And we need to let the rebels question the harm they have brought upon the innocent, we can cut the amount of Rebel recruits down to size, we need to show them the price of rebellion."

Vader remained quiet, he was clearly contemplating what his apprentice told him. After a minute of silence, Vader spoke up.

"You may be right." Vader admitted, "But don't you dare let it go to your head!"

"Of course, master." Starkiller bowed.

"Meet me in the Uziel system in two rotations." Vader ordered, "If sending a message will harm the rebel cells, we will do it together."

"Understood my lord." Starkiller kneeled before Vader's hologram.

"These cells are not to be taken lightly, I see that now, remember, the Darkside is always with you." Vader said as his hologram faded.

Starkiller stood up and went to his personal quarters. He walked down the halls of his cruiser and came to the end of the maze of doors and opened up a heavily fortified blast door. Starkiller used the force to use the special lock; similar to the ones used in the Jedi Temple. He stepped in as the door closed behind him.

Unlike his meditation room, his personal quarters was decorated with trophies he had taken from his targets, varying from lightsabers to Padawan braids to senatorial heirlooms. He had been active since he pledged his service to the Empire after Vader found him. He went to his bunk and opened up a secret drawer underneath it and took out a metal case. After using the force to activate the locks he took out a triangular object, it was a red tetrahedron with a black spot in the middle, it seemed to radiate with red energy. This energy was pure darkness, the very essence of the dark side itself, this was a Sith Holocron.

These Holocrons were originally thought to be myths, but during the era of the Old Republic, only members of the Dark Council possessed one, many of them were destroyed when the Empire fell, but five remained, Starkiller had one of them while his masters possessed two. He used the force to levitate the tetrahedron into the air and open it. Red energy sparked to life and would vaporize those who were not worthy of wielding its power.

A hologram of a masked Sith with a tattoo on his arm; the very same one Starkiller possessed appeared and spoke:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

Starkiller spoke in sync with the Sith, they spoke the Sith Code. Starkiller recited it every day to prove himself a true Sith and to strengthen the Empire's already strong will to crush the rebellion.

"When one man with power falls, a man with twice as much strength takes his place. The Inquisitor has fallen and Starkiller has risen. Lothal has been liberated and the Empire has taken Ralltiir. Families were reunited and the Empire is fighting back with far more tenacity. Troopers have defected and civilians are rising up against the Empire's rule. The battle may have been won, but the war was far from over."

Annnnnd that is a rap people! The final chapter has been completed!

We have been through one heck of a journey together, and now it is both my burden and joy to inform you that The Mandalorian Rebel is complete. Thank you all! My next story will be called:

"The Rise of Starkiller"

Cool title, right?

A/N: I am going to take a break and brainstorm ideas. Don't you forget about me ;) I can't believe this is it, the end of one journey to start another, this is so exciting, if anyone has some ideas for the sequel, PM me and we'll chat, but remember, not all ideas will be accepted, but don't be shy.

A/N: I also have The Horned King's permission to use Yitzhak and Jacob in the sequel as well!

Read, Review, and Enjoy.

Glory to MANDALORE