Random Announcer (using deep voice): You've waited…..You've asked for their return….Ladies and Gentlemen, here is Resist and Echoooooo!
Echo: Thank you! *waves to the crowd and leans towards Resist, whispering* Where did they come from? And who is that guy? I don't remember signing his paycheck...
Resist: Don't know. Just roll with it (waves and flexes his fake muscles for the crowd)
Arthur: Hey guys, we are back with a new chapter and since you guys had to wait a long time, this chapter is by far the biggest written by Echo and Resist, so without further interruptions, enjoy the story
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Rescue Part IV
Arthur had continued to walk around the house with Mia after getting his gear packed for the mission. They had to wait till night to fall anyway, so they had less of a chance at getting caught as they ran across the rooftops of Serenno.
"I've got a bad feeling about this" replied Arthur who was leaping from rooftop to rooftop more nimble than anyone else that was there, which was due to the fact that he could use the force. Arthur inwardly thanked for that or he would be making a lot of noise right now.
As they approached an intersection and the end of the rooftops, Green crouched down and held up a fist, telling them to stop and lay low. "Why would you say that?" the marshal asked with sarcasm. Ghost rolled his eyes and nudged Harper on the shoulder, "It looks like our intel was a little stale, huh?"
Harper chuckled quietly at Ghost's sarcasm and nodded his head. "Which way sir?" he asked Green who was in front of him. The older clone sighed, "We'll have to double back and head down another neighborhood. Otherwise we'd have to cross this street, but that would cause too much confusion."
Arthur thought for a moment and then got somewhat of an idea, "What if I used the force to get us over the street? Or we could tight rope across? Your pick" Arthur said as he pulled out a grapnel gun. "We don't want to waste our cables or take the risk," Green said, observing the scene, "Our shadows would be visible down there and draw the droids' suspicions."
"Well I'm officially out of ideas then, unless you want to try and double back, but that is lost time that we might need to rescue Master Kao" replied Arthur in a low tone, so the droids don't hear them. "Well, we should take that time instead of revealing ourselves," Mia said, looking back towards the other neighborhoods, trying to find a better route.
"After you then ma'am" Arthur replied stepping aside and gesturing with his hand for Mia to take the lead and that he would have her back as she tried to find a new route for the team to take. Green turned to the young woman, "See anything?"
Mia nodded and pointed off in the distance. "If we head back about three blocks," she said in a hush, "We can jump onto the rooftops of the cul de sac. See? They snake around and meet up with the mountain not too far from the palace."
The team followed Mia back three blocks and then scanned the space they had to jump. Arthur let out a long sigh. "Fantastic" he said with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes. "You can jump better than we can," Ghost said with humor. The clone took a few steps back before sprinting and launching off the roof. Luckily, the gap between their rooftop and the next was only about five feet wide. When Ghost landed with a somersault, he turned around and gave the others a thumbs up.
Arthur took a few steps back and started his sprint and then also launched himself, but landed on the down sloping part of the next roof and slid down some before gaining back his traction. Arthur met up with Ghost on the other side and waited for the others.
"Looks like you're right," Green said, scanning over the new neighborhood with his helmet off, "If we run down this line of houses, we'll have access to the wall. Dooku's palace is a good two miles from where the cul de sac meets the cliff."
"Well guess we should get moving then" replied Arthur, who started to head in the direction Green was gesturing toward. "Don't want to keep Dooku waiting now do we?" he asked. Green nodded and sighed, trying to cover the pain in his eyes. He wanted to tell Arthur, but not with Ghost and Harper around. Looking at the kid, he gave him an expression that said "We're running out of time" before putting on his bucket.
Arthur quickly nodded in his direction and then stole a glance at Mia, to calm himself. They had a long and tough road ahead of them and he was going to need all the help he could get in rescuing his master. Arthur reached out with the force again to find his master and felt pain and suffering, until he quickly dropped the connection as what happened before with Dooku talking in his mind flooded his memory banks.
Green rested a hand on Arthur's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "C'mon," he said without his usual enthusiasm, "She'll be okay."
Arthur gave a smile, "I know" replied Arthur without his usual voice. His answer was mumbled and unless you were standing right next to him you wouldn't have heard him. Green nodded and motioned for the group to keep moving, masking his pain as well. Ghost and Harper saluted and began sprinting across the roof to the next.
Arthur followed the clones with Mia to his left. Arthur couldn't stop thinking about when he heard Dooku's voice in his head before waking up in the med bay. Arthur knew Dooku was waiting for him to finish what he started with his master, but he still wasn't going to let him win.
It was only another ten minutes of consistent running through the thick forests of Serenno before the group could see the wall.
"I'd be alright, if I never saw another forest again" replied Arthur as he swatted away a couple branches before stepping into the opening. They all brushed themselves off before creeping closer towards a line of bushes, which hid them enough from a series of droids and lights on top of the wall, which was, of course, almost forty feet tall.
"Alright," Green said, pulling something off his utility belt, "Grab your ascension cables; we're scaling this thing now."
Arthur did as Green ordered and pulled out his ascension cable and fired up the wall, as did the rest of the group. They all started scaling the wall around the same time.
"Going up?" asked Arthur looking at Mia.
The young woman observed the device in her hands. "Uh, yeah," she said nervously. Mia swallowed hard before looking at the top. "It's just….uh….it's kind of high."
Arthur lost control and busted out laughing. "Sorry, I'm sorry," he said through small fits of laughter, "The Great Mia is afraid of heights?" asked Arthur, still slightly chuckling at the scene before him. Mia crossed her arms, a threatening glare on her face. "What's your fear, again, mister?" she asked, smirking.
"I don't know, you tell me," replied Arthur, "I am a jedi, we are impervious to fear" Arthur replied with his head held high. Mia scowled at him again. "If I'm correct, you were scared of embarrassing yourself in front of girls," she said, slightly smirking.
"Still got the girl didn't I?" asked Arthur with a large smirk on his face. He then turned to face up the wall and began to climb it again. Arthur stopped again and looked back to Mia to read her face and gave her a smile when she started to climb up.
A grin grew on Mia's face as she caught up to him. "Not if you keep picking on Green," she laughed, "I wouldn't want to be you when your Master finds out."
Arthur laughed a little, "She won't" Arthur replied, giving Mia a quick kiss on the cheek then continued to climb up the wall.
"C'mon, runts," Harper called out to them, "Less yapping and more climbing!"
(The palace walls)
"This place is crazy huge," Ghost whispered as the group crouched behind a layer of bushes across from the wall. The massive, concrete and metal walls surrounded the enormous palace of the wealthy Count. Droids patrolled the perimeter, using flashlights on their guns to see. "It looks like a prison yard," Harper replied, "Who needs this much space?"
"Our entry point is through the sewer access over there," Green said, pointing towards a hatch near the bottom of the wall, somewhat out of view of the above droids. "The sewer system connects back to the village and is pretty complex, so it'll take us awhile to find our way into the palace from there."
"Right now our problem is actually getting to the hatch," Mia scoffed, counting the number of droids.
Arthur stole a glance at Mia and decided to step up to the plate and make himself look good. "I could dodge the light and make it over to the hatch and get it open for the rest of you" suggested Arthur, not making eye contact with Mia, and looking to the others for their answers.
"How would we dodge the lights to get over there?" Harper asked, raising a brow. His brother scoffed and looked towards Arthur. "We're trained, but we don't have your Jedi magic," Ghost said.
Arthur looked at the two clones, still avoiding Mia, "After opening the hatch, I could get their attention from the other side, which would allow you to easily get to the hatch, without getting caught in the lights" Arthur said, waiting for the clones response. Green snickered and pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Arthur, "See? The General is starting to wear off on him."
"Good plan," Mia said, stifling a laugh at the marshal's comment, "You'd better get going before the sun rises."
"I'm nothing like Kao" mumbled Arthur under his breath, as he started off towards the hatch, using his jedi skills to remain undetected by the Separatist droids guarding the place. Arthur silently made his way to and around the spot lights and reached the hatch. Arthur, as quietly possible, opened the hatch and then made his way through the tunnel to the other side of the compound, preparing himself for his distraction.
Arthur jumped up onto the wall of the compound where the droids are, surprising them. Arthur then pulls out his lightsaber and ignites his blue blade and waits for the droids to react.
"Blast him" yells a droid standing next to his commander, pointing towards Arthur. All at once blaster fire streaks towards Arthur, who deflects the blasts with ease sending them back to the droids making several go offline.
"You idiot!" yells the commander to the droid that gave the order to fire. The droids still continue to move in slowly, surrounding Arthur, who unknowingly to them hits a button on his wrist comm, which gives the signal to the other members of the team on the opposite side of the compound.
Green's attention snapped to his wrist comm. when it flickered red. "That's the signal," he grumbled, "Let's get going before Arthur gets himself into more trouble." Mia snickered and started running for the hatch. The clones followed behind as they sprinted across the clearing, panting and huffing.
Once they reached the metal access hatch, Green opened it and motioned for the others to jump in first. Whilst they did so, he continuously looked above to make sure all the droids kept their attention on Arthur. After Ghost, Harper, and Mia were down and into the tunnel, Green hopped down and closed the hatch. "Night vision," Harper said, pulling down his microbinoculars. Mia rolled her eyes as Ghost and the commander followed suit. "I guess one of you are going to be my guide dog."
"Wait, let me disable the security systems," Ghost said, turning to a panel in the tunnel. Opening it, he yanked out a few wires and started messing with the calibrations. "Why?" Green asked, starting to walk down the tunnel, "We need to get Arthur and then find the sewer system underneath the palace."
"Yeah," Harper started, "But if every droid in the complex knows where we are, then we won't be able to. Plus, if we disable the security systems, they won't be able to tell which way we get into the palace, unlike your original plan."
The commander sighed and rolled his eyes, "ARC troopers…"
"Got it," Ghost said, "Piece of cake." Mia snorted before she started pushing them along, "Okay let's go now!" Green nodded and started running down the tunnel. He noticed an intersecting tunnel that looked promising and brought up his wrist comm. to signal Arthur to get back down.
(Inside the Complex, Kao's prison cell)
Master Kao dangled from the containment field that had her suspended in mid air in her dark cell. Just then the doors opened, which allowed light to enter the cell, slightly causing Kao's eyes to flicker at the change in brightness.
The magna guards entered her cell and dragged her out of the cell and into an open floor where Dooku stood with his back toward her. The droids forcefully dropped her onto the floor where she slightly sait upwards and looked at the back of Dooku.
"Your foolish padawan approaches to rescue you" said Dooku in his deep voice. "I know," Oni panted, rolling her eyes in an unusual display of emotion, "But...you're not...all powerful, Count."
"He will watch with horror as you are killed in front of his eyes. The boy will join the dark side or he will die shortly after your death" replied The Count with his cold voice. "He's...too scared….of the Dark Side," Kao spat, "Like me...he'll never join you. Your tactics are...becoming stale."
Just then a pair of doors open, revealing three magna guards with their electrified staffs. "Bring me the boy alive. I don't care what you do to him, just make sure he is still alive and conscious" replied Dooku, who received acknowledgement from the magna guards who then left to get Arthur.
(Outside Compound with Arthur)
Arthur continued to destroy droid after droid as volleys of blaster fire whizzed by him. Arthur only had a few droids left, but could feel his strength leaving him quickly. Arthur managed to destroy another and mentally started to count how many droids were left. 'Three' as he blocked more blasts and sent them back at the droids. 'Two' as one of the deflected blasts hit a droid. Arthur then charged the remaining two and destroyed their weapons before cutting both in half with a swing of his blade.
Just as he turned around to continue on his own way to find his master, a pair of doors off in the distance opened revealing three magna guards with their staffs up and ready. Arthur mentally cursed and then raised his own blade in front of him.
The guards noticed him up on the wall and began marching towards him, knowing he would take the offensive rather than staying on the wall.
Arthur leaped from the wall and came crashing down on one of the guards cutting him in two. He then had to fight in close combat with the other two guards. The two guards flanked him, so Arthur was busy swinging his lightsaber across his body in order to block both guards attacks but he fell weary and took several quick blows to his sides and collapsed on the ground, admitting defeat. Arthur was then dragged across the compound to the same doors the guards came out of in the first place and entered them.
(Back Inside the Compound with Dooku)
Dooku continued to stand with his back towards Master Kao, who was now on the ground, resting on her knees. Her head hung low from exhaustion and the feeling of defeat. The doors opened and two magna guards entered dragging Arthur, whose breathing was irregular. The droids continued to drag Arthur over to the area of Oni and then stopped and threw Arthur onto the floor, which caused him to give out a pained grunt and continue his irregular breathing.
Oni's head snapped towards him with a look of anger. "I told you not to come!" she barked. Arthur looked into her eyes, that have lost their usual color, and gave a smirk, "Yeah….well….I was... never good at….. following…. directions. I thought Kenobi…... told you that," Arthur managed to wheeze out. Arthur laughed a little, which caused him to clinch up in pain.
Despite the situation, Oni couldn't resist a smile, though irritated. "He did mention that," she scoffed, "Next time I'll get captured when there's someone to babysit you."
"I'm not a baby" mumbled Arthur, trying to avoid as much pain as possible when he talked. "No offense, but….. I don't think I….. could handle…. a next time," replied Arthur. His humorous attitude was gone, and he now looked at his master with a serious and concerned face. Her look of irritation disappeared and she glared up at Dooku. "You still think your plan will work, Count?" Oni inquired, "It failed the first time. It will fail again."
Dooku turned to face them for the first time and his look was emotionless. "Your padawan will beg for mercy when I am done with you two" he replied, giving Oni his cold and bitter look. "My plan may not have worked the first time, but that is what trial and error is for." continued Dooku, who started to step towards the duo on the ground.
Oni turned to Arthur with a raised brow. "So this was your plan? Coming alone?"
Arthur gave her a look of mock hurt, and gave her a wink and casually pressed a button on his wrist comm to signal his surprise for Dooku and his master. Just then an explosion was heard and everyone looked in that general direction to see three clones and a bounty hunter come out and start blasting the surrounding droids. Arthur made a move to grab his lightsaber and was about to free his master when he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder, and he collapsed on the ground right next to his master.
Oni smirked as Dooku hooked his attention towards the incoming group. With the Force, she summoned Arthur's lightsaber and one of her own dangling on the Count's hip. As the blue and green blades ignited, Kao chuckled and stood up. "Like I said," she waited for Dooku to turn around and realize what happened, "It's going to fail again."
A determined look came upon the Jedi Master's face and she leapt towards Dooku, blades poised for a killing blow. Dooku just in time, was able to lift his blade up to lock blades with Oni. "Your padawan lies on the floor, and soon he will die" replied Dooku, pushing back against Oni.
She fought his words, not letting them distract her as they did when she lost her first Padawan two years ago. "Talk as much as you like, Count," Oni scoffed, "But I'm immune. Your failure last time has sealed that deal." The female Jedi pushed against his blade, sending him back. Backflipping a few yards away, she landed in a defensive stance, waiting for the Sith Lord to make his move. Her blades crossed behind her back as she held them in a backwards grip.
Dooku looked at the poised Jedi Master and decided to send streaks of lightning at her to get her attention as he closed the gap. Oni easily continued draw the lightning to her lightsaber and Dooku made his way toward her. When Dooku was close enough he let the lightning leave his finger tips and allowed the last bit to travel toward Oni, and then leaped into the air to strike down hard on the Jedi Master.
Realizing that he was no longer relying upon his traditional Soresu ways, Oni waited until the last possible second to roll away. Dooku landed where she once was, digging his saber into the floor of his palace. The Jedi stood back up, deciding to use the deadly form of Vaapad.
Dooku realized his hold was slipping on Oni and so he decided it was time to go. He pushed Oni back with the force to gain the space he needed to operate and pulled down some debri off the wall and sent it at Arthur who was still laying on the ground in immense pain from his irregular breathing and his shoulder wound.
Kao gasped and dropped the lightsabers. Reaching out her hands, she caught every piece of debris in time before they hit her Padawan. With a strained grunt, she threw the pile across the room and into a wall. Looking behind her, she saw that the Sith Lord was gone. As she ran towards Arthur to help him, Green and company ran into the room. "General," the commander exclaimed as he spotted her kneeling down. He placed a hand on her shoulder before looking down at Arthur.
"Good job, kid," he said with a pant, "We thought you actually got caught there." Mia smiled down at the apprentice, "We knew you had some sort of dubious plan."
"I only have one plan, and that is to make it up as I go," Arthur smiled back at her. He was obviously in pain and the smile was somewhat forced. "Come on," Oni said, wrapping Arthur's right arm around her shoulders to help him up, "Let's go. You look worse than me."
"I didn't think that was possible master" Arthur replied, earning a laugh from the clones, until he took a step and would have fell face first if his master wasn't holding onto him, which then made the clones laugh even harder.
"Karma," Green said in a sing-song voice, "Just wait 'til I tell her what you said while she was gone." Oni paused in her attempt to help him. "What'd you say?" Arthur just shook his head as fast as possible without hurting himself. Oni's eyes narrowed, the liquid amber coloration returning to them. "What. Did. You. Say?"
"Um, what did I say? I forget cause of my head injury" replied Arthur who looked toward Green. The marshal commander smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, "I could list the smart remarks you made in the three weeks your Master has been gone, but I don't think we could spare twenty minutes."
A smug look came on Oni's face, "Oh really? I thought I specifically said that Arthur is supposed to do what you say when you say it."
"Hey now, I was in charge of this rescue and got you out master, and I didn't say that many smart remarks" defended Arthur. Everyone in the room gave him an "Are you kidding me?" look. Arthur slightly raised hands, since they were around Oni, "Ok, ok. I said a lot, but at least my plan still worked" replied Arthur in a last attempt to save himself from the wrath of his master.
Oni took in a deep breath and gave him a smile, "Thank you." When Arthur looked as if he was relieved, she chuckled. "You're still going to be severely punished."
"Yes master" he gave a look to Mia that said "I think we are still good." Arthur felt much better now than he did the past several weeks…. no months…. well whatever it was, he felt much better since getting Oni back, and he hoped things could return to normal somewhat. Arthur still had a puzzling look on his face, which his master seem to have noticed, since he was staring right at her.
Kao either ignored the puzzled look due to her injuries, or decided to question him on it later. "What's the plan to get off this rock?" the Jedi Master asked, looking from Arthur to Mia to Green. "I assume that you did not come here with a Republic fleet?"
"Nope, just on a senator's ship" replied Arthur, still with the puzzling look plastered on his face. "I didn't really think this far ahead. Now is where we wing it and make it up as we go" said a chuckling Arthur, who immediately stopped when Oni's eyes narrowed at him.
"I think we all really need to improve our planning skills," Green said, looking off into space. Everyone in the room grunted in agreement and nodded their heads. "Yeah, we do," Mia said, looking off as well. Oni scoffed and shook her head, "Okay, let's stop daydreaming and get going!"
They all took off simultaneously in the same direction, Oni still having to help Arthur walk. Oni and Arthur were behind the rest of the group a good distance, so Arthur figured he would ask his question that has been on his mind. He knew it probably wasn't the greatest time, but took a shot. "Master, what happened to your first padawan? Is it why you didn't really want me at the beginning?" asked Arthur with curiosity that was hard to miss.
Oni covered her emotional reaction with her usual stoic, wise glance. "She was a lot like you, to say the least," Kao said, "And what happened to her is something I never want to see again."
"Was it Dooku? It wasn't hard to pick up on. I picked up clues when you two talked, and it was written all over your face, that I gotten better at reading, because you usually show no emotion at all" replied Arthur. He knew he was getting into rough waters, but decided he would take the plunge and pay for it later.
"Well, Arthur," Oni said, "It happened almost two years ago..."
Resist: Well that the latest installment of this awesome story! Tune in for the next adventure filled with tension.
Arthur: WAIT! TIME OUT! What about the story Oni was going to tell?
Echo: Hehe, that's not going to be in this story
Resist (using his deep announcer voice): From the makers of this story, namely Echo, comes this new story, a sequel-prequel about the sister of Oni's first padawan.
Arthur: Hold up. First off, that was dramatic, and secondly how can it be a sequel and a prequel?
Green: Uh, well….it starts before the beginning of this story…
Oni: And then ends after the end of this story.
Arthur: Huh, well that makes a lot more sense. Well ladies and gents, that it for this chapter and don't forget to drop reviews and don't sweat, this story is still alive and kicking.
Mia: Arthur….you forgot something? *smirks at him*
Arthur: What may that be my lady?
Mia: *whispering* The thing with Resist and Echo not owning something! *fake cough*
Arthur: Ah crap, thanks beautiful. Well, Resist and Echo don't own this thing called Star Wars.
