Chapter 9: Counterattack
The Throne Room…
Roman exhaled for what had to be the zillionth time. The waiting for everyone to be ready was driving him crazy. He could see Sonic and Sally sitting a little to his right, just talking to each other, reassuring one another. A few metres away, Bunnie and Antoine were doing the same. On another note, Seth was sitting nearby, talking to someone on his holoprojector. Roman let out a small smile and walked over, catching in on the conversation:
"Things are crazy over here at the moment, Seth." The figure from the holoprojector said, the voice obviously female. "I'm standing outside at Padmé's apartment right now, just watching what's going on. There's obviously some massive attack at the Temple going on right now, quite possibly by the clones. If you were here, you'd see the smoke."
Seth sighed. "Things are equally as crazy over here, 'Soka. We're about to take the fight to the clones here right now. All of them are cooped up in the entrance hall down the corridor from the throne room."
'Soka smiled weakly. "Be careful, Seth. I… I don't know what I'd do if I discovered you'd been killed."
"I know what you mean." Seth said. "But stay put. When things are over on my end, I'll head over to Coruscant and come pick you up."
"If you survive." 'Soka replied sadly.
"Ahsoka, trust me. I'll survive this." Seth said. "Think of all we've been through during the war. If I can survive that, then I sure as hell can survive this."
Ahsoka Tano smiled. "I'll hold you to that, Seth Kerran."
"Relax, Ahsoka." Roman said as he walked over and squatted so that he was in view. "I've known Seth quite a while longer than you, and I know for a fact that he is way too stubborn to die. Especially when he's got you waiting for him."
"Roman." Ahsoka said. "I was wondering when I'd see your furball of a face again."
"And I was wondering when I'd hear that voice again, after what happened when you left." Roman said.
Ahsoka shook her head. "Well, you've heard it. Anything else for the youngest Jedi Knight of his generation?"
Roman shook his head. "Nothing except this: In case I don't survive, I just want you to know that you're the best friend a guy like me could have during the war. If he survives and I don't, you'd better take care of Seth for me."
"Or what, mister?" Ahsoka asked.
"I'll come back from the dead and give you an undead ass-kicking." Roman replied.
Ahsoka laughed before shaking her head. "Fine, fine."
Roman nodded and said: "Well, I'll leave you two to it." At this, he got up and walked off, leaving Seth alone with his holoprojector, and Ahsoka.
Seth sighed and said: "Like he said, I'm supposedly too stubborn to die."
"You've got to admit, that is kind of true." Ahsoka said pointedly. "Think of some of the wounds you suffered during the Clone Wars. Most of those would have killed an ordinary man."
"True, but then again, I'm no ordinary man: I'm a Jedi, and I'm dating the single most beautiful girl I've ever seen." Seth said.
Ahsoka giggled. "I'll add that to the ever growing list of compliments you've given me." She sighed. "I just hope that it won't be the last one."
"Ahsoka, trust me. It won't. And besides, you and Roman both said I'm too stubborn to die." Seth said, fighting to hold back tears.
"You still came close to, though." Ahsoka said, fighting back tears of her own. After a period of silence, she added: "I love you, Seth."
"I love you too, Ahsoka. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Ahsoka replied. Promptly, the image of her disappeared.
Seth put the holo to one side and held his head in his hand, sobbing to himself.
Roman saw this and walked over, sitting by his friend and wrapping his arm around Seth's shoulders. "Don't worry about it, Seth. Way I see it, we'll both survive this. You'll see Ahsoka again. Trust me."
"But what if I don't?" Seth asked between sobs.
"You will Seth. I'll make sure of it." Roman assured him. "We'll watch each other's backs, okay? Just like old times."
Seth looked up from Roman, a spectre of a smile crossing his face. "When we were younger… Before I met Ahsoka."
Roman nodded before turning to everyone and shouting: "Get ready, people! We're heading out in less than a minute!" Turning to Seth, Roman helped his friend up, and added: "Come on, buddy. Let's have some fun."
The Entrance Hall…
Rancor and Nexu Company were waiting for the enemy to come, weapons trained and ready, aimed at the entrance. They'd prepared by bringing through what was left of the fortifications from outside, and placing them down. Now everything was set. When the Jedi and their friends stepped through the door, they would be shot full of blaster holes so quickly that they wouldn't have time to step fully through the door before they were dead.
Behind the door, the whole group had stacked up on either side of the doorway, hugging the walls.
Roman turned to Shatter and asked: "Got a flashbang or something?"
Shatter nodded and whispered: "You kick open the door, then I'll toss it in."
Roman thought over the plan, then nodded. "Let's kick this shit off with a bang… literally."
Everyone chuckled despite the seriousness of the situation, but quickly tensed up as Shatter brandished the grenade, and Roman prepared to lash out.
Roman's eyes met those of Shatter, and the two mentally counted: One, two, three! As soon as they counted three, Roman jumped in front of the door, and using the Force to augment his kick, he unleashed a kick that could've shattered the hide of a lylek from Ryloth that sent the door flying off of its hinges, and jumped out of the way just as the blaster fire came their way.
Turning, Roman shouted over the noise of blaster fire: "Guess you were right, Roth! They are expecting us!"
"Glad to hear you admit it, you crazy son of a bitch!" Roth shouted back.
"Well, to be honest-" Roman replied, "-It just so happens, that I don't give a shit!" At this, he jumped into the line of fire, tossed the flashbang, and dived out of the way again. A few seconds later, he heard a loud bang, followed by the sounds of screaming clones. Smirking, Roman turned to everyone and said: "Ladies and Gentlemen: It's on!" At this, he drew his lightsaber, and charged the ranks of the clones, as did everybody.
Mere seconds later…
The first clone to fall to Roman's blade was tackled to the floor. When he tried to get back up, Roman's foot pushed him back down, and his throat was slashed open.
Roman looked up from that kill and did the same to the second clone coming his way. A third prepared to fire, but before he could even snap off the first shot, his upper half had already been separated from his lower half, courtesy of Roman's lightsaber. The fourth was a little more cautious, but before he could fire off a shot, Roman had slashed him across the torso. Fifth came a clone who charged Roman, his blaster raised as if the clone intended to bludgeon Roman to death. Roman simply slashed upwards, cutting the clone's blaster in half, before slashing back down at the clone, beheading him and showering Roman's already covered chest in fresh gore. Using the momentum from the last kill to his advantage, Roman switched to a reverse grip and stabbed a sixth clone in the gut, kicking him off and into two more clones, the eighth of which Roman defeated without difficulty. The ninth clone however, performed a backward roll as Roman came at him, preparing to fire, but before he could, a spinning lightsaber impaled him. Roman turned to see Seth walking up. "You're still alive then?" Roman asked jokingly.
"Someone's got to watch your back." Seth replied as he dragged the lightsaber from the ninth clone. "Loser buys the drinks?"
Roman smirked and bumped knuckles with Seth. "By fuck, you're on!"
The two instantly turned away from one another and stood back-to-back with each other, beginning to cut, stab and slash at any clone coming their way, weaving a tapestry of blood and gore.
Meanwhile, Roth was spinning his lightsaber while using it like a battle staff, slashing through clone troopers and cutting them into bloody, fleshy ribbons with his saber staff. Whirling around, Roth beheaded three clones simultaneously, rolled under several more, and slashed those ones in half. As he finished with that motion, he turned to see how Roman and Seth were doing. And he couldn't help but smile at their teamwork. A clone charged him, and his attention was quickly diverted, but through the Force, he kept tabs on them.
As this was happening, Sally, now having forsaken her pistols and now having started to use her more favoured weapons: her ring blades, which were now taking chunk after bloody chunk out of any clone coming near her, soaking her clothes with blood. A clone managed to land a punch on her, but before he could shoot, a certain blue hedgehog knocked him out of the way.
"You're welcome, Sal!" Sonic shouted before continuing his speedy rampage.
Sally shook her head in disbelief as she resumed fighting, wondering whether Sonic would ever slow down a little bit.
While that was going on, Tails had adopted a run-and-gun approach, his blaster pistol in one hand, and his knife in another. Rolling under a clone in front of him, Tails stabbed him in the kidney area and shot an approaching clone in the head. Ripping his knife out of the clone behind him, Tails walked towards another clone who turned to shoot him. With reflexes Tails never knew he had, Tails jumped to one side as the shot was fired, kicked the clone in the back of the knee, and opened their throat, giving Tails yet another shower of blood. Yet at the present moment, Tails didn't even care. He realised that he needed to kill, or be killed.
Back with Roman and Seth, the two had finished fighting back to back, and were instead now pushing forward, using their usual tactic of one defends, the other attacks. Roman deflected oncoming blaster bolts while Seth cut several clones into gory ribbons. Then, Seth leaped forward and defended while Roman dealt the same hand to some nearby unfortunate clone troopers. After about ten times, they returned to going back to back, knowing it would take more than that to take down the enemy.
As they were getting back to it, Roth blocked several oncoming blaster bolts before sending several clones sprawling with a Force-Push. As soon as he did this, he hurled his saber-staff like a javelin, watching as it impaled the clones he'd just Force-Pushed away, and as soon as it had completed its grim task he summoned it back to his hands, spinning it as he resumed cutting the clones around him to pieces.
While he completed his task, Shatter and Tusk were in the thick of it, having set their blasters to full auto as they fired on the oncoming clones, that upon a time, had been their brothers. But that was before the clones had turned on the Jedi. That had been before Order 66 had been issued, and it had been before the battle against Eggman and the Separatists only several hours ago.
"Watch your left!" Shatter warned as he turned and gunned down several clones headed Tusk's way from the left. Forward rolling after that, he knocked another clone down with his blaster and finished him off with a blaster bolt to the chest, and to the skull. As he raised his blaster towards the standing enemies, he heard a shot, just before a blaster bolt embedded itself into his shoulder. Shatter grunted in pain and fell to the floor, holding his gun out while shooting at the enemy.
Tusk saw this and shot the clones about to shoot Shatter, ran over, and dragged him away from the enemy, propping him up at the wall.
"I had it under control, Tusk." Shatter said.
"Yeah, right." Tusk said as he began to tend to Shatter's wounds.
Meanwhile, Bunnie and Antoine were in a predicament similar to what Roman and Seth were in: Back to back, facing off against what seemed like an endless horde of clones.
Bunnie lashed out with a fierce kick that sent the clone in front of her flying, his breastplate caved in. Following that, her feet left the floor, she spun in the air and landed a bone-shattering roundhouse kick to a clone that made the clone's head do a one-eighty, snapping the clone's neck.
Antoine, meantime, had a DC-15S in one hand, and his sabre in another, using his sabre to knock away or slash at vulnerable clones, or using the DC-15S to shoot them. Ducking under a clone's attempt to bludgeon him to death, Antoine stabbed the clone and drew his sword out in a manner that had the clone's intestines spilling out onto the floor. Using his momentum to follow that, Antoine levelled his blaster at a clone's head and fired at point blank range, sending the now headless clone flying into some others, who were all promptly shot by Antoine.
"Nice one, Sugar." Bunnie remarked as she pecked her husband on the cheek. They were interrupted by Roman's rallying cry of:
"Regroup!"
Everyone converged on Roman and Seth's position, where he, Seth, and Roth were waiting.
"Nice job, everybody." Roman said, a smiled crossing his face. "We did it."
Everyone began cheering as Sally walked up and hugged Roman. "Thank Aurora."
"I couldn't agree more, Sally." Roman said. "It's all over."
Sally separated from Roman with the widest possible smile on her face. But then, she spotted a lone clone trooper enter the room, his kama and pauldrons clear on his shoulder, and dual blaster pistols in hand. Commander Spectre.
Her eyes widening, Sally called out: "Roman, behind you!"
Roman whipped round having ignited his lightsaber, but before he could do anything, a blaster shot rang out, and Roman felt a coldness he seldom felt: The cold bite of a blaster bolt.
"ROMAN!" Every member of the Freedom Fighters shouted, Tails and Sally the loudest.
Roman staggered back, his left hand at the entry point of the blaster bolt, which was at his stomach. Pulling away with his left hand, Roman could see that the glove in his left hand, normally white, had now blossomed red with blood. His blood. Looking up, he recognised Spectre, walking up with a purpose. With a cry of defiance, Roman raised his lightsaber, only for more blaster bolts to enter his body: One through his shoulder, two through his upper right arm, and three more through his chest and abdomen. His lightsaber soon fell from hand, and just as quickly, he followed, blood beginning to leak from the side of his mouth.
"NO!" Sally screamed as she made to help Roman, but before she could, Spectre's blaster was quickly trained on her.
"Get back!" Spectre snarled. "Let him die. Such is the price of betraying the Republic." As he said this, about two more clone trooper companies entered, training their blaster rifles on them.
Reluctantly, Sally dropped her weapons and raised her hands, as did the Freedom Fighters.
Spectre smiled and nodded, turning to Roth and Seth. "As for you two, you're joining the fox. Restrain them, men!"
Both made to resist, but a blow from the butt-end of a DC-15A caused him to drop his lightsaber. He was quickly restrained and brought before Spectre, who was readying one of his pistols.
Seth put up more of a fight, but suffered a similar fate as he too, was brought before Spectre. Tears took hold as Seth thought to himself: I'm sorry, Ahsoka.
As this happened, the clones moved slightly more forward, keeping their blasters trained on the others, including the Freedom Fighters.
Sally was almost in shock, looking down at the inert form of Roman, who still lay where he had fallen.
Sonic was on his knees, unable to believe that they'd been defeated.
Tails watched all this happen with unmitigated horror, but then, his eyes fell on Roman's lightsaber, which as if by instinct, had rolled right next to Tails' left foot. Again, Tails felt this strange feeling, similar to the feeling he'd had when he'd been searching for a means to distract the clone patrols at the airfield. Except now, the feeling was telling Tails to pick up the lightsaber. Looking to make sure he wasn't being watched, he slowly bent down, reaching for the lightsaber.
Spectre looked over the two Jedi knelt before him, taking in their faces before he ended their lives. After a few moments, he asked: "Prepared to meet your ends, traitors?"
Roth bared his teeth. "We were never traitors, Spectre. If there's any traitors, it's you. It's you, and whoever orchestrated this bullshit who are the traitors. And I promise you this: Even if you have our lives today, we will have yours in return."
"Bold words. A pity they're the words you'll carry to your grave." Spectre taunted. Turning to Seth, he asked: "Any last words, Mandalorian?"
Seth tensed as his heritage was revealed, noticing the look of horror that appeared on Sally's face. But looking up, his face hardened into one of defiance. "I may be Mandalorian, but that doesn't mean shit to me. Just end this so I can go say hi to my dead friends your buddies in the 501st butchered at the Temple."
"As you wish." Spectre said darkly as his finger tightened around the trigger.
Seth shut his eyes tightly, thinking solely of Ahsoka, of the feeling of her body pressed against his, and the feeling of her lips on his.
Before Spectre could fire though, the sound of a lightsaber igniting drew his attention, as well as the other clones.
Seth looked up and at Roman's inert form, but realised that Roman wasn't who the clones were aiming at. Turning slightly, his eyes widened at who it was. "No fucking way…"
Standing with Roman's lightsaber in his hands, was Tails.
Instantly, the blaster of every clone in the room was trained on Tails.
"If you have any idea of what's good for you kid, I'd drop that lightsaber. Now." Spectre warned.
Tails made no movement, instead, kept glaring at Spectre with the lightsaber in his hands.
Spectre drew his other pistol, now pointing both of them at the young vulpine. "I'm not going to say this again kid, so DROP THE FUCKING WEAPON!"
Again, Tails made no movement.
Spectre's fingers tightened around the triggers of his blasters. "I'm going to count to three, and I want that lightsaber dropped. One…"
Tails' eyes narrowed as his grip on the lightsaber tightened.
"Two…" Spectre snarled, now ready to fire, as were his clones.
Again, Tails continued looking at Spectre, not moving an inch.
Spectre made to say the word that would end this stubborn little furball's life, but before he could form the words, Tails finally spoke:
"You made three mistakes." Tails said.
Underneath his helmet, Spectre raised an eyebrow. "Really? And what might those mistakes be?"
"One: you called me a kid." Tails replied. "Two: you've threatened my friends, family, and myself. And your worst mistake, as well as that of your men: You've taken your attention from the others."
Spectre shook his head and made to end this bothersome little child's life, but shockingly, as the blaster shot rang out, the fox had dodged. Just as quickly, Spectre's severed right hand fell to the floor. Spectre cried out in pain and staggered back, just as everyone got their weapons and charged the clones. Officially, the fight was renewed.
Almost immediately afterwards...
Jumping up, Roth used the Force to snatch his lightsaber from the ground, igniting it while spinning, decapitating several clones at once.
Also with renewed vigour, Sally and Sonic leapt to their feet, shared a passionate kiss, and then ran into the action together.
Seth back-flipped away from the action and summoned his lightsabers back to him, igniting them instantly. "Guess Ahsoka's seeing me again after all." Seth remarked as he leapt at the enemy lines.
Tails also leapt into action, feeling something he hadn't felt before envelop him as he cut and slashed through the clones that had now started fighting back. What is happening to me? The twin tailed vulpine wondered as he cut a clone's head in two and bisected another clone's upper half from his lower half. Stabbing at another clone, Tails ran the clone through before seeing Roth engaging some more clones. Spinning his lightsaber like Roman had, Tails walked up to where Roth was right now, helping him cut down the clones.
As he cut down some clones, Roth watched Tails using Roman's lightsaber, almost as if it came naturally to the young kitsune. Reaching out with the Force, Roth found a strong concentration of Force Energy with the ten year old vulpine. As he ran through a clone, Roth realised a truth he'd never seen coming: Tails was Force sensitive.
As she fought the clones, Sally was also watching Tails, smiling proudly as she watched Tails cut and thrust at the enemy, almost as if it came naturally to him. Guess those swordplay lessons Antoine gave him as a kid paid off somewhat, Sally thought, quickly making a mental note not to tell Antoine that.
"Geez, never thought I'd see the day where Tails was wielding one of those things."
Sally turned to see Sonic standing there, also watching Tails with the lightsaber, but with a look of awe. "Believe me, Sonic. I didn't either."
Tails heard what they were saying and smiled. It meant that whatever it was that had enveloped him, it was doing him some good. Seeing a clone opening fire, Tails backflipped over the bolt and ran at the clone, sending the clone's head rolling with a flick of the wrist. Turning, he cut through several more clones. He turned to face a few more, but they were quickly sent flying by a familiar blue hedgehog spin-dashing them away. "I had that under control." Tails said as Sonic walked up to him.
"I know, but I couldn't resist." The blue blur replied. "You're not bad with that, Little Bro, considering you haven't even wielded one before."
"I know." Tails said. "But it just felt right when I picked it up. When I picked it up, I just felt some sort of power flowing through me, and I guess things went downhill for the clones after that."
Sonic smirked and bumped fists with Tails. "Ain't that the truth?" Around the two 'brothers', the fight was ending. Even more clones now lay dead in the room. All but two: Commander Spectre, and Captain Pac.
Both clones were still standing, with Spectre holding his maimed hand to his chest, looking at their dead men. Hearing footsteps, they both looked up to see Tails walk up, flanked by Roth and Seth.
Spectre stepped forward, his expression a contemptuous snarl. "Come on. At least let the General kill us. It'll be more honourable for the both of us then getting killed by a second rate freak like you."
Everyone gasped as Tails' grip on the lightsaber tightened. No-one ever called Tails a freak and got away with it.
Instead, Tails stood there, glowering at them both. "You want to talk about honour? Here's a saying of ours, back during the Great War: 'Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask them if honour matters'."
"Bullshit!" Pac spat as he stepped forward, taking off his helmet and showing his face for the first time. As usual, he looked just like his brothers, save for the intense burn scar burn scar that covered the right side of his face. "You think this is the end of some holo-movie, where the hero always says something witty to the villain after he defeats them? Well, here's a newsflash for you freak: This isn't the movies. This is real life. More will follow us, and eventually, you will all bow before the Emperor!"
Tails' grip on the lightsaber tightened. "Call me a freak… One. More. Time." Tails said, using a tone of voice no-one knew the usually good-natured kit possessed.
Pac smirked. "Alright then, freak."
Tails turned to the others, shrugged, and then turned back around, beheading Pac in the blink of an eye.
"You motherfucker!" Spectre bellowed. Raising his pistol, Spectre made to say something, but promptly, his left hand fell to the floor, severed by a well-timed saber-throw by Seth. Falling to his knees, Spectre looked up through the visor of his helmet. "Finish it." Spectre demanded. "End my life and allow me to keep what remains of my honour."
Tails said nothing, merely reached out with one hand, and took off Spectre's helmet, looking into the tattooed clone's eyes once more. Promptly, he raised Roman's lightsaber above his head, as a gasp emanated from the people behind him. Suddenly, Tails lowered the weapon, switched it off, and handed it to Seth, who'd walked up next to him. "I'm not gonna be the one who kills you, Spectre. You're simply not worth it." At this, he turned and walked over to where Roman lay motionless, with Sally and Bunnie tending to him. As he walked towards them, he heard a blaster ring out, but paid no attention. As he'd just said, Spectre simply wasn't worth it.
How do you like them apples? After this chapter, there's only the final chapter, and then, we're all done for this fic. For now.
Please leave your reviews, and May the Force be with you. Always.
T-Rock14
