Back again, finally :D.

Chapter 11: Trap!

"Engaging primary drive system … cycling repulsors … docking hatches ceiled … hull integrity – check … status readout – green…" Adven Skyfighter, the newly declared Chosen Three, was running the pre-flight checklist on the Twilight. Considering how much the ship was modified by Anakin Skywalker, there was no need for it, but Adven decided to please Obi-wan for once. "Attention all passengers, all systems are green, we are preparing to lift off. Please take your seats as per Galactic Republic regulation." The Senior Padawan calmly – or at least outwardly calmly – cycled up the repulsorlifts, letting the ship hover up gently. When the battered freighter was twenty meters up he engaged the primary sublight drive, and to his great annoyance flew off towards space at a miniscule speed.

"I hope you're happy old man," Adven grumbled under his breath. Unfortunately the subject of his insult was sitting in the co-pilot seat and, being a Jedi, was able to pick up on it.

"Not you too!" Obi-wan Kenobi groaned, "And I'll have you know Padawan, 36 is not old."

"Not by Wookiee standards it ain't…" was the sarcastic response, "seriously who follows flight regs anyway?"

"Look to starboard, that's who," Adven neglected his piloting in favour of looking over at the newcomer standing just inside the bridge bulkhead, "I'll tell you what, when I first flew with Artoo thirteen years ago, he even then didn't follow regs. And he's supposed to be a droid!"

Obi-wan shook his head in despair. What am I going to do with those two!

A few minutes later Adven anxiously announced that the Twilight should've gotten clear of the planet's atmosphere by that time, but as it was, there seemed to be no end in sight. As a result the four Jedi were beginning to get uneasy.

"How do we leave Mortis?" Ahsoka questioned, worry evident in her voice.

"How did you do it in the first place?" retorted Adven.

"Aa … well you see we never got into our shuttle, there was this bright light from the crystal, and then we just woke up in space once again."

"Great, anyone's got a crystal to break?" Anakin quipped. Obi-wan glared at his former student, obviously annoyed with the younger man never taking any situation seriously. However Adven looked to be seriously considering what his master said.

With a snap of his fingers Skyfighter ordered the others, "Get in a seat and strap yourselves in. Artoo, be sure you're ready to take over control of the ship if anything goes wrong." With that Adven set the systems to astrodroid control and added, "Alright guys, open the meld."

"What are you planning?" Ahsoka questioned him.

"Well it is obvious that an enormous amount of Force energy is needed to make a portal that will let you leave Mortis. This explains how the Son never managed to escape by himself. Neither one of us has the strength to do this by ourselves, hence the mind-link…."

"You are not serious! Such a force drain could severely impede our ability to function properly for days! Besides it's completely—" As usual, Obi-wan's speech on the force was cut off by Adven,

"Besides you're afraid that I'll find out about Melida/Daan Master Kenobi? Don't worry, I would agree that your actions were justified and the right thing to do at the time. And as for the drain, that's why Adven has us strapped in and Artoo ready to take over, right Padawan?"

"Correct Master Anakin, now could we all just open the meld and concentrate, I do want to leave Mortis sometime this century."

Sure enough mere seconds later, a portal began to appear in the sky in front of the Twilight. With each passing moment the gateway grew larger and larger, and when it reached a diameter of about twenty-five meters, the old freighter began moving towards it of its own accord.

R2-D2 was worried, or as worried as his modified programming allowed him to be. Master tried some task with his special ability and now he was slumped on his restraints, probably unconscious. Just like the other sentients he added glumly. The little blue astromech was fully capable of flying the ship, quite competently at that, but the Twilight's on board computer screeched in alarm that there was a separatist fleet just twenty klicks out. Must wake Master! Must wake Master! R2-D2 began beeping and bleeping frantically trying to get those humans to reboot. Why can't they have a backup activation protocol?

"Unidentified freighter, power down your engines and lower your shields," crackled a droid voice through the comm speaker, "You will shut down all weapons systems and all other non-essential systems and prepare to be boarded." Still neither Jedi didn't so much as stir.

Artoo began to feel the mechanical equivalent of panic. The droid's processors began calculating the odds of him being able to out-manoeuvre a Recusant-class destroyer and two Munificent-class frigates without sentient assistance. It wasn't encouraging.

Resorting to desperate measures the Artoo quickly made a backup of his memories, knowing full well that this could be his last mission. Then the brave little droid extended his electric shocker and moved over to Adven.

"What the …owpff!" Adven shrieked as a powerful electric current ran tup his arm. He jolted into full alertness in the blink of an eye and gasped involuntarily. He had seen many-a warship in his day, some even more intimidating than the separatist cruisers, but literally staring down the barrel of a Munificent, especially just after you've come to wasn't pleasant.

"Artoo, get us out of here!" Adven barked yanking the control column to the side.

With a powerful surge in through the force meld, Skyfighter was able to get his companions to regain consciousness.

"What's going on?" Anakin mumbled, still dazed.

"We must've dropped out in the middle of a seppy fleet! And before you say it, I can't get us out of here in this bucket, they've caught us in a tractor beam."

Anakin muttered a few choice Huttese curses and began to climb out of his seat.

Minutes later the G9 Rigger settled down on the hanger deck of the CIS cruiser, Slaughterer. According to Anakin's plan, the engines were already shut down, and as soon as the ramp lowered, the four Jedi sprang out, lightsabers out and wreaking havoc.

"Let's split up!" Anakin shouted back to his companions, "Adven, go to the engine room, prepare a self-destruct. Ahsoka, disable the fighters. Obi-wan and I'll disable the tractor beam and visit the bridge!"

"No!" Adven objected vehemently, "We're all going to the bridge. I want to take over this ship. I can re-program the droids too."

Obi-wan and Anakin gave their assent, and the group moved out of the hangar through the bow blast doors.

Every separatist ship had droids on board, usually though most had the regular B1s. This ship's corridors however were literally crawling with spider droids, SBDs, and the occasional commando squad. And so it was that the group was caught in another crossfire yet again.

"The … sepies … are fighting … tooth and claw … for …aarggh … for every … blasted … square centimetre!" Adven called out to his companions, his words punctuated by the sizzle of the laser bolts on his lightsaber's blade.

"I a-gree!" Obi-wan yelled back, "usually their resistance isn't as strong aboard ship!"

That means that there is something on the bridge, something important – or a trap. Adven's mind raced through the possibilities, up till now they were fighting moderately small groups of droids and from one direction, but this time they were caught between heavy infantry units coming from all sides at a crossroads.

"Anakin, cover me for a few seconds!" He yelled. His master went to obey, knowing that whatever his apprentice was planning, it would be impressive. Adven crouched low, he deactivated his lightsaber and took out a pair of DL-44 blaster pistols.

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast kid!" for answer, Adven leapt to his feet and summersaulted over his master's head. Still in mid-air he let loose with a withering barrage of red bolts at the ranks of SBDs on the group's left flank.

He landed not more than five meters in front of the droid ranks, before their processors could comprehend what happened, he had already gunned down eight of their number and sprang away to another location, the force assisting him with his movements.

"Wow, he's like Rex on overdrive!" Ahsoka complemented the other Padawan as he methodically demolished the super battle droid ranks.

"Cut the chatter snips! Obi-wan, cover the kid's back, Ahsoka you're with me, we're taking the spiders over there!" With that Anakin darted forward, deflecting or dodging the cannon fire coming their way from up ahead.

The turbolift pinged as it rapidly aproached the bridge deck and began to decelerate. The group's journey through the ship was rather tough for about five decks above the hanger. They had to fight through seemingly endless amounts of droids to move on from one intersection to the next. Turbolifts would malfunction, blast doors would often slam shut, sometimes almost catching the Jedi's cloaks, and that wasn't mentioning the other surprises like trap doors, toxic gases, and even a depressurised corridor opening on outer space. But as soon as the party reached deck Alpha-37 all their troubles simply vanished. There weren't any droids in sight, not even a lone mouse droid. All systems functioned properly, and there were no more traps.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Obi-wan muttered at one point in their journey. And frankly, the others were ready to agree with him. After all why defend five decks with little or no importance so hard against four intruders just to let them walk free up to your bridge afterward? There were three possible options: either the seps ran out of droids – not likely, the captain of the ship was an idiot and didn't know how to defend against intruders – quite possible these days but not worth hanging all your hopes on, or the whole thing was one big trap – the least appealing and most likely option.

The lift doors slid open with a characteristic hiss of pressured air and the four Jedi saw a brown-robed figure slouching casually in the commander's seat.

"Dooku!" Anakin hissed, "You two take the droids, Obi-wan and I'll take care of this." For a moment the Jedi Knight thought that his Padawans would obey him, but that was not to be.

Adven had barely moved five paces out of the turbolift when he jumped to the side without obvious warning or reason. And just in time. Just before Anakin was about to open his mouth to reprimand his apprentice a shimmering white barrier appeared around him and his other companions.

"Ray shields! How could this happen, we're smarter than this!" Obi-wan fumed.

"Not sure about you, but I certainly am though." The look Obi-wan shot at Adven could have melted tempered durasteel, but the insufferable teenager just shrugged it off and turned instead to Dooku, "So is this the bad guy's head sleemo? I would have thought that an evil sith lord would be more … intimidating?"

"As you see," the figure declared as if he hadn't heard the insult, "This distress beacon was a trap. My master provided me with the frequency of that supposed 'Mortis call'. Indeed Jedi are so predictable." He snorted.

"Are we now?" Adven mocked, "Can you predict whether I'm going to shoot you with a dart or a laser?" as if to emphasise his statement he lifted his left gauntlet bracing it with his right hand and pointing the impressive arsenal of barrels vaguely in the Count's general direction.

Someone should tell Adven that arrogance is likely to get him killed one day...