Flying free from another cloud of debris, Macavity looked around the battle from his cockpit. He winced slightly as another Republic ship was hit and turned back to their objective. Damn it, how had it come to a battle over Coruscant itself. "The General's Command Ship is dead ahead," he told Coricopat. "Head for the hanger."
"Mac, have you noticed the shields are still up?" The other Jedi was struggling to keep control of his own fighter, the amount of damage done to it during the battle that still raged on not insubstantial.
"So they are," Macavity replied, glancing down at the controls before flipping his fighter back over to back up and going for the generators, breaking the shields though the blast doors started closing almost instantly. "Sorry about that..."
"Mhm..." Coricopat managed to get his fighter inside, though it landed a good deal harder than he would have preferred. Them cockpit snapped open and he leaped out, lightsaber at the ready to deal with the battle droids that were quickly closing in.
Macavity didn't even wait until his fighter had skidded to a stop, already out before it hit the deck. It took only a moment to take care of the battle droids. he glanced over at Artoo, who'd jumped from one of the fighters. "Locate the Chancellor, would you little guy?"
The droid beeped at him and rolled over to a socket, hacking into the computer, pulling up a holocram of the ship.
Coricopat sighed slightly as the hologram appeared. "The Chancellor's signal is coming from there, the observation platform at the top of that spire." Of course, only the most inaccessible accommodations for the leader of the senate...
"I sense Genghis," Macavity growled.
"I sense a trap." His partner shrugged.
"Well let's go spring it then," Macavity said with a grin and headed for the elevator, glancing back at Artoo who beeped at him. He hated leaving the droid-leaving a piece of Vic almost-behind in battle but... "Stay with the ships. Or, ship rather since Cor's is gone."
Coricopat paused at the beeping, withdrawing a comlink and tossing it to the droid, "Keep this, wait for orders, hm?"
Macavity headed over for the elevator, and while they were waiting for it to come, several destroyers rolled over. "Oh come on," he sighed, reflecting their bolts and stepping back into the elevator when it arrived.
Coricopat breathed a soft sigh of relief, shutting off his blade to immediately hear a droid behind them, "Drop your weapons! I said drop 'em."
The Jedi glanced at his partner and relit his lightsaber, whirling to deal with the droids.
Macavity almost laughed at the absurdity of it, taking care of the rest of the droids before returning his lightsaber to his belt and crossing his arms over his chest.
Coricopat shook his head, "I love the fact that they always expect us to do what they say..."
"I know, it's almost cute how hard they try..." Macavity shook his head, as they arrived at the top of the ship. "That was...surprisingly easy," he said, getting his lightsaber out again before stepping out.
Coricopat lit his lightsaber, frowning as he stepped out, "Too easy. I don't like it…"
Macavity stepped out, and bowed down low when he saw the chancellor seated on an almost throne before the viewport. "Chancellor. Are you alright?"
"Genghis," Deuteronomy said, voice hoarse. "Behind you."
Coricopat turned at that, his eyes falling on where Genghis and two super battle droids had just stepped off of the other elevators. The Jedi glanced at his partner, "This time we do it together..."
"I was about to say that," Macavity told him with a grin.
"Get help! You're no match for him! He's a Sith Lord!" the Chancellor said from behind them.
Coricopat managed to offer Deuteronomy a smile as Genghis leaped from the balcony to land gracefully on the main floor. "Chancellor, Sith Lords are our specialty."
Genghis approached, "Your swords please. We don't want to make a mess of things in front of the Chancellor..."
"Oh, I think he won't mind terribly," Macavity replied, flipping his blade in his hand and moving to one side carefully, before charging the other.
Coricopat attacked at the same time as Macavity did, and for a moment it appeared that Genghis would have trouble keeping up with them, but he fell into an easy rhythm of countering their blows.
Macavity seemed to be the only one not tiring at least a little, fueled on by something that looked an awful lot like anger.
Coricopat found himself thrown back with the force as Genghis whirled to ascend the stairs. The Jedi pulled himself to his feet and climbed the other staircase, blocking the blasts from the droids, and making quick work of them.
Macavity leapt over the stairs, reaching the top just before Genghis.
The Sith found himself facing both Jedi again as Coricopat reached the top. He countered them for a while before landing a solid kick to Macavity and catching Coricopat by the throat with the Force, lifting him and hurling him across the chamber. The Jedi's back hit a balcony railing and he fell to the main floor, unconscious. Genghis didn't waste time pulling the balcony down on top of his opponent. He'd finish that one off later.
Macavity snarled as his back hit the archway of the door hard. Goddamnit, his ribs had never really been strong to begin with, why was every Sith Lord out there after them? His eyes widened seeing Coricopat tumble down and he spun around hard, kicking Genghis off the overhang they were on back to the level Deuteronomy was on, and leapt down after him, bringing his light saber up hard.
Genghis countered the blow quickly, backing up, studying his opponent's moves as they fought. "I sense fear in you. Anger and Hate as well. But you don't use them…" he shook his head, even as he backed again.
"I don't need to use them," Macavity informed him, yanking his mind back from the anger he'd been feeling moments ago, attempting to reign it in.
Genghis' brow rose, "Harnessing it certainly doesn't help you."
Macavity's mouth twitched back into something that was almost a snarl. "I don't need it to defeat you," he insisted again.
"You're only fighting with a part of you. It limits your abilities." Genghis responded coldly, offering another rapid series of blows.
Macavity replied with another series of blows, quick and harsh, the anger leaking from around the edges. He slashed through the hand that was holding the red blade, cutting it clean off and froze.
Genghis gaped at where his hand had been, his blue gaze rising to meet Macavity's eyes.
Eyes huge, Macavity looked down at him, and started to take a step back.
"Kill him!" the Chancellor yelled from behind him.
Macavity froze again, whipping his head around to look at the other, having scooped up Genghis' blade before turning. "What? That's not the Jedi way, it never has been. We take prisoners, not kill them."
"He's too dangerous to be left alive!" Deuteronomy insisted. "Think about all the lifes you could be saving by killing him now and ending the war."
"Which would work just as well as taking him prisoner," Macavity insisted, frowning.
Genghis's wide eyes darted from Macavity to the Chancellor and back, silently pleading for clemency.
"We don't have the time!" the Chancellor insisted.
"He needs to be brought to trial!" Macavity snapped back. "I answer to the Jedi order, not you."
The Chancellor scowled as the ship rocked due to another explosion. "We don't have time for arguments," he snapped. "Do. It."
"I..." He knew that if Cori was awake this wouldn't even be an issue why was he... He caught his balance again as the ship rocked, looking at the Sith.
Genghis resigned himself to what he was hearing and frowned at Macavity. "Why are you hesitating? He's right."
Macavity gaped at him. "You are not helping your own case!" he snapped and the ship rocked.
"You have to do it now! Or something!" Deuteronomy cried, a look of worry crossing his face as the battle raged. Macavity looked between them once more and Coricopat's prone form before stepping forward.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, perhaps more to the order than Genghis, making quick work of the deed before stepping back quickly and freeing the Chancellor who ran for the door as Macavity stopped next to Coricopat, slinging the smaller Jedi over his back.
"What are you doing?" Deuteronomy demanded. "We don't have the time..."
Macavity shot him a long hard look. "His fate is ours," he snapped, going for the elevator. Just as they reached it, the entire ship seemed to tilt, internal gravity having been scrabbled as the walls suddenly became the new floor. Scrabbling inside the elevator shaft, Macavity set off along it, using it as a corridor for the time being. Soon enough through, gravity reasserted itself and the Chancellor and Jedi were suddenly hanging off the side. "Artoo!" Macavity yelped into the comlink.
Coricopat regained consciousness about this point to find himself still hanging from Macavity's shoulders over the, practically, bottomless elevator shaft. He righted himself, getting a grip on his partner.
"Easy," Macavity grunted. "We're in a bit of a situation."
"So I see...Did I miss something?" Coricopat replied dryly.
"Maybe," Macavity replied. "Artoo, can you get an elevator up? Slowly?"
The droid beeped at them for a moment that sounded like a negative. "Great," Macavity muttered and glanced down. "Cor, you have a grappling hook right? We can swing down and get into that door."
Cori nodded slightly, glancing up, "We'd best do it fast."
"Yeah," Macavity agreed, trying to reach his own and giving up. "Can you get it?"
The other Jedi moved carefully to withdraw his grapple and managed to get his partner's as well, handing Mac his.
"Thankee," Macavity said and glanced down to the chancellor. "You ready for this too sir?" he asked and got a quick nod. "Good," he said, hooking the end of his around himself and the Chancellor, before swinging the top up and getting them into the next elevator opening.
Coricopat followed suit quickly, swinging into the opening and getting to his feet, though damn his legs hurt. "Well...now to get off this ship."
Macavity nodded. However, upon reaching the hanger bay they looked around. "None of these will fly," Macavity said as Artoo rolled up to them.
"Damn it you're right." He looked around, "We'd best head up toward the bridge...hope we can find an escape pod."
Macavity nodded and the Chancellor didn't look terribly impressed with his rescue mission but followed the Jedi upward.
They make their way down a hallway, but are suddenly cut off and surrounded by ray shields. Coricopat muttered something under his breath.
"Ray shields?" Macavity demanded. "Wait a minute, we're smarter than this!"
"Apparently not." Cori responded, shaking his head.
"This is the oldest trap in the book!" Macavity exclaimed, shaking his head. "But... I suggest patience."
The other Jedi blinked at him, "Patience! That's your brilliant plan?"
"Yes," Macavity said, forcing a grin. "Artoo will be along shortly and he'll disable the ray shields." Even Deuteronomy looked less than impressed with that plan.
Moments later Artoo came skidding down the corridor. "See?" Macavity said, too soon as moments later Artoo was followed by several heavy destroyers.
Coricopat's brow arched, "Do you have a plan B?"
Several droids surrounded the two Jedi, their droid and the Chancellor as they were led to General Growltiger, who nearly hacked up a lung upon seeing them. "Ah, we've been waiting for you," he wheezed. "That wasn't much of a rescue."
Coricopat watched as their lightsabers were handed over to the General, "Depends upon your point of view."
Growltiger snorted, turning to look at Macavity. "Somehow I expected someone of your reputation to be a little bit... more."
Macavity rolled his eyes at him. "Well you're shorter than I expected," he said, eying the other's hunched over form.
"Macavity...do try not to upset him. We have a job to do." Coricopat sighed.
Macavity shrugged as much as he could with his arms bound behind him. Growltiger coughed and laughed. "Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection."
"Not this time. And this time you won't escape." He glanced at Artoo, "Artoo."
Artoo obliged by going crazy, shocking most of the droid guard back.
Coricopat turned, using the force to draw his lightsaber to himself, slicing through his own bonds before turning and dealing with Macavity's.
Macavity grinned a thank you, and used to force to free his own lightsaber from Growltiger who screamed out "Crush them! Make them suffer." However, it didn't take long to take out most of the droids on the bridge, the pilot trying to inform General Growltiger that the ship was starting to fall from orbit.
Coricopat found himself facing one of Growltiger's bodyguards, who was carrying a double ended electro staff. He sliced the droid guard's head off, only to find himself still on the defensive when it kept coming. Damn it.
Macavity took out the other main droid bodyguard by a few well placed slices, turning to General Growltiger who snarled at him, backing toward the viewport as the ship started tilting dangerously toward Coruscant's gravity well.
Coricopat finally finished off the bodyguard he was facing, turning to assist his partner against the General.
Growltiger snarled at both of them, grabbing one of the energy staffs and throwing it through the viewport and jumping through as everything not bolted down was pulled through as well, the Jedi and Chancellor clinging to different railings as the blast shield kicked in.
Once internal gravity was restored, Macavity turned to the controls, and watched as lights flickered, informing him one by one the escape pods were launching. He turned. "All the escape pods have been launched!"
"Growltiger. Can you fly a cruiser like this?" Coricopat asked his partner.
"You mean can I land what's left of it?" Macavity said, settling in front of the controls as Deuteronomy silently did the same. "Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in," he said, hitting different controls as Artoo beeped behind him.
Coricopat settled in another seat to keep an eye on altitude and temperature readings, they just had to get through the atmosphere and landed. Who was he kidding...? "Just." He started following any instructions Macavity gave, but all were thrown forward as the ship lurched and the back half came away.
"We lost something," Macavity said, eyes huge.
Coricopat swallowed, "Not to worry...we're still flying half the ship." He turned his attention back to the readings. "Eight plus sixty...We're in the atmosphere." Now to hope they made it through.
Macavity sucked in a deep breath, pointing to something. "Artoo! Grab that and keep us steady."
Several other ships came into their view ports, including a couple fireships. "We'll take you in," one of them said, spraying water over their hulk.
"We're coming in way too hot..." Macavity muttered.
Coricopat braced, murmuring under his breath, "Easy...easy..." They just had to get through this in one piece...
The ship hit the landing strip with a screech, skidding forward with further loud protests, the cockpit jumping every several seconds as it started to finally slow down, finally coming to an abrupt halt with a painful shudder.
"Another happy landing," Macavity said, voice shaking though he put on a grin for the others. Artoo whistled lowly.
Coricopat managed a wan smile, "If we disregard the control tower we took out on our way in..." He took a moment to gather himself before standing and clapping a hand on Macavity's shoulder. "Well done."
Macavity sucked in a breath and let it out. "Thanks. I'm going to go… collapse on the ground outside now and promise to never leave it again."
"I think I may join you..." He motioned toward the exit from the ship.
Macavity nodded, but turned to the Chancellor. "After you sir," he murmured, and the three departed from the ship, Artoo whistling behind them.
Dramatic battle! Welcome to the third and final story, in which we play fast and loose with the plot from here on out. Enjoy!