Chapter 4 Stephanie

"Okay, now we have the battle under control we need to plan our next move," said Anakin.

"I suggest," said Nate, "that we go after Darth Reven."

"Don't forget our mission," reminded Dan, "we need to find Stephanie and then destroy the droid works."

"I believe that we should find Stephanie first," suggested Anakin, "because if we go after Reven it will most likely lead us to the factory."

"Yes," said Dan, "I believe that too. So now we need to locate Stephanie."

"HOW ARE WE TO DO THAT!" exploded Nate, "we don't have any clue where she is.'

"CALM down," said Dan, "Master Mundi said she was a Jedi so maybe we can use the force to lead us to her."

After Dan suggested this they went into a silent chamber to meditate. As they were meditating everyone felt a disturbance in the force. They knew where she was. She was being held captive in the CIS's base, the Geonosian spire. The trio then took speeder bikes and headed for the spire alone not knowing what resistance they might encounter. The ride to the spire was uneventful, which sort of disturbed the Jedi being deep in enemy territory and not encountering anything. As they got nearer to the spire the resistance got heaver. The Jedi had to stop to fight every minuet. But finally the reached they spire.

"Be prepared for anything inside," said Anakin.

The Jedi entered the spire and were astonished to find very little resistance, which again disturbed the Jedi. As they got closer to the center of the spire the force seemed to grow. When the reached the center they were met with a surprise. There was someone in a prison cell.

"Whoa, who is that," whispered Nate.

"My guess is that she is Stephanie," replied Anakin.

The trio approached the cell and suddenly the person stirred, and then spoke.

"Hello Nate, Anakin, Dan," said the person, "don't be surprised I knew you were coming while you were in the Forward Command Post."

"Are you--" began Dan but he was interrupted by the person, who seemed to read their minds.

"Yes, I am Stephanie Brown. You want to know how I can do this? All I will tell you is I am very strong in the Force," she replied.

"Well then why haven't you gotten out of here?" asked Nate

"These bar are made of a material that suppresses force powers, maybe you have heard of it it's called Ysalamiri," replied Stephanie.

"Okay is there any way to get you out," asked Anakin.

Looking up she replied, "Do you have your Sabers?"

At this the trio knew what to do. They all ignited their sabers. Anikin's was a dark green, Dan's was a dark blue, and Nate's was a dark purple.

"Wow, I only knew of one person with a purple light saber and that's Windu," said Anakin.

"Well I guess you haven't seen everything," said Nate.

"Now that you are all caught up will you hurry along." said Stephanie getting annoyed.

The sabers cut through the bars quickly and once that was done Stephanie jumped up and out of the cell.

"Now that you're out do you have a saber?" asked Nate getting annoyed at her.

She walked over to a wall and touched a secret panel. Then suddenly the wall next to the panel moved which made the trio jump. After the wall moved all the way it reveled a secret cash of weapons. Stephanie just reached in a pulled out a light saber. She ignited it and a yellow light shone around the whole room.

"Okay now I know I haven't seen everything either. That is the first yellow saber I've ever seen," said Nate.

Stephanie shut of her saber and continued with a formal introduction. "I am here because I was sent by the council to spy on Reven and the factory. My cover was that I defected to the Dark Side. I was told that in about a year another team of Jedi would come to assist in destroying the factory and Reven. Six months into my mission I was uncovered, Reven saw through my disguise and I was put in that cell. Since there was nothing but time, so I meditated and learned many things about the force. With my strong connection with the force I was able to sense that three Jedi had come to Geonosis. When I felt that they were looking for me I sent a disturbance. That disturbance was felt by them and sent you three to me." said Stephanie.

"Cool, now that the introductions are over can we return to the mission," said Dan.

"Yes, we would like to know what you learned about the factory," said Anakin.

"Actually I didn't learn much of anything. I was discovered too early for Reven to trust me that much," said Stephanie ashamed.

"Okay now we know that we know nothing can we go and just wing it and blow it up?" asked Nate impatiently.

Everyone looked at Nate like he was some crazy lunatic. He seemed to be in on something that everyone else wasn't.

"No, we can't just go and blow it up," said Dan "didn't you think that there would be thousands of droids crawling around just waiting for some idiot like you to walk right in without thinking."

"Yes," said Nate to everyone's surprise. By the looks on Anakin and Dan's faces one could almost see they still thought he was a manic. Stephanie on the other hand just silently sat back to see what would happen. "Oh," continued Nate, "I guess then that I was the only one who seemed to see the droids filing out of the Techno Union star ships." The others still seemed dumbfounded but Stephanie had sort of a smile on her face. "Look," still continued Nate, "what happened after we destroyed almost all the droids?"

"More just came to take their place," said Anakin.

"Until you destroyed the star ships," said Dan, "now I see, Nate you were right about something for once."

"I know," said Nate proudly, "but I also saw them pouring out of the ships."

"When did you see that!?" exclaimed Anakin.

"What, did you think I was just watching Dan back in the transports?" asked Nate "No, I was watching the battle too that's when I looked for where the droids were coming from and noticed they came from the ships."

Nobody had anything to say to this. It was amazing Nate had actually seen something the other two hadn't. After this Nate looked around at their faces and saw everyone, except Stephanie, had a dumbfounded look on their face. Stephanie seemed to be beaming with pride but Nate didn't know what to make of this yet. Then suddenly her face turned grave.

"He's coming," she said.

"Who, who's coming?" asked Dan inquisitively.

"Darth Reven." After she said this she turned quickly and pushed another secret panel on the wall and a secret passage opened. "Quickly, this tunnel leads out through the bottom of the spire."

Anakin, Dan, and Stephanie quickly ran into the tunnel. At first it didn't look like Nate was going to run for it. He looked like he was going to try to stand his ground against Reven. But the other three proded him and he took off down the tunnel. Once they were inside, the door shut behind them closing off any way for light to get in. The team ignited their light sabers only to find that they were in the middle of a Geonosian hive. At the sight of the light the Geonosians were sent into a frenzy and started attacking the intruders.

"Run!" yelled Nate.

The team ran as fast as they could but couldn't get through the door on the other side without a fight. At least a dozen geonosians stood in their way. The team didn't break their stride Stephanie ran ahead and pushed them away with the force. They continued to run down the dark hall not knowing what was ahead of them. Suddenly Stephanie stopped in the middle of the hall, there, right in front of them was a dead end. They were trapped and the sound of beating wings got closer. The three boys took up defensive positions. But Stephanie didn't draw her saber . Instead she quickly searched for something on the wall, then stopped, and pushed another hidden panel. The giant rock moved out of the way and the team ran out with the rock slamming to the ground right behind them. They were safe, for now.