Okay…I didn't put a disclaimer into Part One, but hey…this is my first Fanfic, so please bear with me. As we all know, George Lucas is Da Man, and he owns everything in the story except the Piper and John, so mucho props to my man Lucas. "Hey George-you getting around to that DVD stuff yet?"
Rating: "R" for "Wangwage." John earns the nickname "Potty Mouth" from the Naboo.
Read Parts 1 and 2 first…
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John sat in the back of the speeder and watched the Naboo countryside flash by. Ever since Qui-gon decided to download the history of the galaxy into my brain, something's different. But how? Well, Johnnie-boy, your marksmanship, for one. ...and why does everyone seem to be…more there?
John looked around at the speeder's other occupants. Obi-wan and Anakin sat in the back with him. John studied Anakin more closely-the boy seemed to be radiating waves of energy from himself. Almost like you could see sound waves… Obi-wan, John could tell, was very powerful as well-but not in the raw quality that Anakin seemed to have. The energy Qbi-wan dissapated seemed more contained and controlled. Because of his experience with Qui-gon, John knew that Jedi were capable of harnessing and manipulating the force-and the contrast between the raw energy of the boy and the trained Jedi Padawan's measured use was obvious.
He looked over at Qui-gon. The Jedi Master was sitting in the front of the speeder, keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding countryside as it whizzed by. Amazing. John could feel Qui-gon's presence.
It's like he's a part of the moment, not just living in it.
John thought about Jar-Jar and the others of his kind. He had asked Jar-Jar if he was coming to the palace with Theed with them, and Jar-Jar's slightly goofy exterior and changed a little.
"Meesa goin to stop da bombad mekaneeks. Meesa Gungan." And with that, he had smiled at John before turning to go with the Boss Nass and the dozen or so Gungan sentries into the swampy forest.
Hope you come through this shitstorm okay, Jar-Jar.
"Where did you learn your marksmanship?" John turned. Obi-was was speaking to him. "Your reflexes are quite sharp." This visitor…Qui-gon was right. He would take offense to being called a "pathetic life form"-and it was quite obvious that he was not. And ever since Qui-gon had…John's force presence was very noticeable-before it had been only with severe bursts of emotion. He wasn't like the boy. This stranger realized that emotions were sometimes dangerous, and was making great efforts to control them. Obi-wan hoped that he succeeded.
John looked at the younger Jedi with a little surprise. Obi-wan was looking over at him-but with a different look in his eyes. John had the feeling that the Jedi was genuinely interested in what he was going to say. "Well, my father was a Marine, and he taught me how to shoot about the time I was Anakin's age. I've been shooting off and on ever since."
Obi-wan nodded. "What's a Marine?"
"Oh." John chuckled. He forgot that these folks wouldn't have the foggiest notion of what a Marine was. "Well, they're an amphibious assault force-actually, the Marine Corps is in the department of the Navy…" John saw that his explanation wasn't making a whole lot of sense. "The Marines are soldiers. Very good ones."
Qui-gon turned around and watched his padawan and John converse. They seemed to be about the same age, give or take a few months, but they shared the same intense stare. The Jedi Master hoped that his new friend would make it through this. He was already certain that he would fight well.
Qui-gon spoke. "We're at the drop-off point."
*****
John looked out towards the palace courtyard from his group's hiding place. It looked beautiful, as did the rest of the palace.
God…it's beautiful. Almost as if this is what the Italians or Spanish WANTED their buildings to look like. …And the people here-yeah, I'd have to say this is worth fighting for, Johnnie-boy.
John had briefly conversed with a couple of the place guards in Panaka's detachment. He was struck by their genuine worry about their fellow countrymen.He turned to hear Qui-gon tell the boy to find a safe hiding place once they were inside.
"Sure," replied Anakin, with all of the sincerity the boy could muster.
A boy? We're taking a boy into a firefight with us? I wonder what's crazier, us going up against a goddamn robot army, or taking a boy into the fight with us.
He looked over at the Queen. Beyond her, he could see Panaka across the far side of the courtyard plaza signaling to her that he was in position. John fingered the grip of his blaster and looked out at the droids that were in the courtyard. He wondered how many shots it would take to knock one down.
Okay…
John watched four of Panaka's troops back a speeder into the plaza with a light blaster cannon mounted on it. Here we go…BOOM! The hovertank fifty yards off to his left exploded, blowing out every droid in a twenty-yard radius.
"GO!" Yelled the Queen, and they started to flood out into the courtyard plaza. John looked around, finding the droids closest to their group and firing at them. The first three went down with a shot apiece, and the next droid simply exploded when it's fellow droid's rifle inadvertently discharged as it came apart.
Hmm….quantity, not quality seems to be the name of the game with these fuckers…fine by me…
The firefight was now underway in earnest, with the Jedi at the front of the group, their lightsabers out, cutting and slashing a passage clear for the rest of the group. John seemed to take in the entire courtyard at once-he saw the smoke and fire from damaged droids and the tank, could almost pick out each individual red or green blaster bolt as it crisscrossed the square, and could make out the bright green and blue slashes of the Jedi's lightsabers as they led the group through the plaza. He could hear the yelling of the group, the explosions, and felt the concussions as blaster fire echoed off the walls around him.
Dad was right…damn, he was dead on! This is complete confusion, and the side who is less confused wins.
John remembered his father telling him about war. "Son, it's louder than hell, and a complete mess. If you can manage to keep your head, you just might get through it."Thanks, Dad.
John thought, firing from a low crouch. A red blaster bolt zinged by his ear. Damn! He turned to see the droid that had fired at him stopping to get a better aim. Before it could, however, its chest exploded in a shower of sparks. John realized that he was the one who fired, and decided that he should keep moving with the others.Dad neglected to say that he'd been scared in combat. Hell, I'm not scared.
I'm fucking terrified.
John…John…keep your mind in the moment…
Qui-gon's voice echoed in his head, and John realized that the Jedi could feel his fear. He's right. Concentrate on the moment…Droid.THOWAP! Droid…
THOWAP!
"Come on!" Qui-gon's voice called them over to the entranceway they had been running toward.
They made their way inside the palace to a hallway, where surprisingly, very few droids were stationed. Caught off guard, the droids only managed to get off a few shots before being destroyed.
They stopped before a set of doors. "Is this the hangar?" John asked Obi-wan.
"Yes, it is," The Jedi replied. "The pilots that we have need to get to their fighters. Hopefully, the Trade Federation hasn't disabled them."
"Ready?" the Queen asked, looking at everyone. She received a curt nod from everyone. "Let's go."
Damn, if she doesn't kick some ass…
They flooded into the hangar, fanning out from the doors firing at the droids that were already firing at them. John caught Anakin starting to run over to some crates to find cover.
"Get to your ships!" Amidala yelled. The pilots each fanned out to their fighters, each stacked two and sometimes three high in alcoves that ran down the sides of the hangar. Man…how in the hell do those things fly? John looked over at a fighter. The only visible lifting surfaces he could see was a pair of stubby wings that ended with engines of some sort hanging off the end of the wing. He worked his way, still firing his blaster, over to a droid who had discovered the hard way that a Jedi's lightsaber was hazardous to its operation. He got over to where the droid's severed arm still clutched its blaster rifle.
"Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.." John muttered, tucking the blaster Panaka gave him into the belt of his jeans. He grabbed the blaster rifle, turned, and was firing six shots at a group of droids before they even knew where the fire was coming from. MUCH better…
Panaka and a contingent of Naboo guards suddenly swarmed through the door, and they started firing into the already diminished number of droids remaining in the hangar. As the last droid was dispatched, John looked around. Where's Anakin?
He started walking ahead of the group back towards the door. Headed for the throne room now, I guess. …Where's the boy? John heard a beep and whistle, and recognized it as the little droid that projected that holo onto the back of the speeder. He looked toward one of the three remaining fighters in the hangar.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Anakin called out from the cockpit.
Qui-gon's voice was firm. "No, Ani. You stay there-stay right where you are."
"…But, I…" the boy pleaded.
"Stay in that cockpit." Qui-gon would brook no argument.
As they neared the door, John stopped. He felt something. It came the same way he felt the two Jedi and the boy, but this…wave…gave him an involuntary shudder. What the hell is that? He felt his fear returning, and tried to calm himself.
The two Jedi saw John's figure ahead of them stop abruptly, then stiffen as he looked at the closed hanger door. Then they too, felt a cold wave come through the force. It's the same warrior…the one in black from Tattooine…
The door opened.
A figure in black was standing there, holding what looked like a silver baton, his head bowed. He looked up at the group. Who the hell is THIS? John unconsciously tightened his grip on his blaster rifle, staring at the hooded figure.
Qui-gon and Obi-wan moved through the group and past John.
"We'll handle this."
John stepped back, his eyes locked onto the scene before him in tense fascination. Qui-gon and Obi-wan took off their robes and discarded them on the floor, and standing in the doorway, the figure in black did the same.
He pulled his hood back to reveal a red and black tattooed face, the patterns done in fearful symmetry with the features of his face. His head was hairless, and a crown of short horns jutted outward out of his skin. He looked over at the Jedi with gleaming yellowish eyes. They spoke of madness-and an intense hatred of a kind John had never seen before.
Who the FUCK is this guy? A reject from a KISS concert?
John was about to raise his blaster rifle and fire when something stopped him. The experience with Qui-gon came rushing back, and he remembered one of the darker chapters in the Jedi's long history.The Sith.
Qui-gon had made him aware of the entire history of the Sith. How Darth Bane had split from the Jedi. How the Jedi had wiped them out-supposedly. Jesus, this guy's a Sith Lord? Why in the hell would this guy be in cahoots with the Trade Federation? What does he want?The Sith held out his baton and ignited a crimson red blade.
Shit…He's got a lightsaber, too.
Another hiss, and a second red blade protruded out of the other end of the Sith's lightsaber hilt.
Oh, man.
Obi-wan and Qui-gon, without hesitation, ignited their lightsabers and the three warriors started fighting.
One of Panaka's troops shouted a warning. "Droidekas!"
Could it get any worse?
John had heard about the droidekas and was fervently hoping that they would be able to avoid encountering them. As he looked, three rolled into view, stopped, unfolded, and started firing at their position.John ran with Panaka and the Queen over behind one of the large stone columns that bordered the central part of the hanger and started firing his blaster rifle at the droidekas. Damn, I KNOW I hit the bastard…oh, no. He realized that the droidekas had shields-shields that were too strong for a blaster bolt to get through.
Well, ladies and gentlemen? Are we screwed yet?
John noticed that there was a fighter hanging near the droideka's position, and if he could get over by that other column…*****
"We gotta do something, Artoo!" Anakin called out, still in the fighter's cockpit. The astromech droid whistled and beeped a reply, and Anakin found the ship's systems powering up around him. "All right!"
*****
John noticed a fighter towards the back of the hanger start to move and power up. Is that Anakin?
*****
"
Thanks Artoo!" Anakin said to the droid behind him. "Great idea! I'll take over. Let's see..."His hands ran over the controls, flipping switches, pulling levers-but still not finding the controls that fired the laser. "Whoops…wrong one," Anakin said as the cockpit canopy closed over his head. …And the fighter was starting to turn towards the three droidekas. "Mabye this one…"
BLAM! BLAM! Laser bolts shot out of the discharge ports on the fighter's nose. The droideka's shields were adequate protection against hand-held energy weapons, but were woefully inadequate against the fighter's laser cannons. The first droideka discovered this fact with Anakin's first salvo.
"Yeah, all right!" Anakin hooted. "Droid blaster. Yeah!" He kept firing.
*****
John looked over at the slowly moving fighter that hung ten feet off the ground. Anakin? Damn, boy…Those droidekas had no chance against that fighter's guns. …But there's still two left…He ran across the hanger, to try and find what held up the fighter that the remaining droidekas had moved under. Looking back at the door, he caught a glimpse of the two Jedi and the Sith lord fighting. The black warrior was sidestepping and flipping over the Jedi's every attack, and even worse-he was fighting them both at the same time, giving no ground and taking no quarter.
God, I hope they can beat him. 'Cause I sure as hell can't.
As he turned, he noticed the droideka rotating its blaster barrels towards him. He had already fired off two shots when the droideka and Anakin's fighter fired at the same time. John felt his right arm start to burn white-hot and felt, rather than heard the explosion of ordinance the droideka's laser had detonated.
Shit…
A giant hand seemed to grab him and throw him across the hangar where he slammed against a column. John felt and heard the sickly flat thud of flesh hitting something solid and heard cracks in his body. Then falling-where's the ground? He ended up lying against droid parts near the column. He opened his eyes slowly and tried to sit up. Oh, fuck…oh God, that hurts…
His head made it about six inches off the floor of the hangar and he noticed his right arm didn't seem to be feeling right. okay…it's getting dark in here… His strength seemed to be draining out of his body and then the darkness took him.
*****
Padme looked over at John as he ran across the hangar, obviously trying to get into a better position to fire back at the droidekas. She watched as he managed to dodge some of their fire, and even return some of the shots. Then she noticed Anakin was firing at the droidekas from the fighter he had managed to start up. The boy was picking off the droidekas one by one with each burst from his lasers, and as he shot the last one, she noticed it fired right across the hangar at John. One of the bolts struck the blaster rifle he was carrying in his right hand, causing it to explode, while the other burned right past his left side and exploded a crate of energy cells fifteen feet behind him. He flew across the hanger and into a column as if he were a rag doll, and dropped to the floor. Oh, no…Lords, let him be okay…this wasn't his fight…
*****
Panaka saw the body fly across the hangar and inwardly cringed. As a soldier, he knew that he was going to sustain casualties in this. But he was an officer of the highest caliber, one who felt and mourned the loss of even one man. His eyes betrayed his dismay when he recognized who the latest casualty was, flung across thirty yards of hangar before hitting one of the stone support columns. The man from Earth who had only fired projectile weapons before today. There was no way he could have survived that... Panaka's face hardened, and he vowed to give the man a proper soldier's burial when this was over. He turned to the queen. "Let's go-out that way there…"
They turned and went through a door that led out into a palace hallway beyond. They had accomplished their objective here, to get the fighters out to the control ship. They could mourn their losses later.
*****
Somewhere in the back of Qui-gon's mind he felt John's presence in the force dim-as if his voice suddenly went from a strong shout to a whisper. Part of him cursed the Sith Lord before him, turning and striking with a speed and strength he had never seen before-every fiber he had was focused on the moment, trying to turn the tide of the battle. He could not afford to spare any of his concentration to search for his new friend, or the dark warrior would strike both him and Obi-wan down. Stay in the moment, John…
The Sith flipped over them and backed off long enough to hurl a piece of debris at the control panel of the hanger doors, opening them and leading his prey into the palace's generator pit beyond.
TO BE CONTINUED…