NOTE: I have finished plotting out the entire story. With the plot ready, all I have to do is finish the story. There should be a total of 3-4 chapters left. I am intending to finish this story. Thank you to everyone who has stayed for the entire 2 years it's been up. I'm sorry for the delays.
The clones had ceased fire. The Jedi were locked in a lethal battle with the elite battle droids. Cole had slumped to floor, unable to sustain weight on the steel leg any longer. He held firm on the gun and released his finger from the trigger. Vince and Tris had switched to semi-automatic guns and sprayed a wall of lasers at them. Ahsoka and Anakin deflected as much as they could, but they were growing tired fast. The constant barrage of fire required full attention. Abruptly, the droids ceased fire as well and resumed a standard position. Anakin moved to put everyone behind him and reached out a protective arm to Ahsoka.
The stand-still was short lived, interrupted by the clanking of feet behind them. Several droids appeared behind the group of clones and began firing at the rear. Anakin lunged to defend the troopers as Tris and Vince took them by mild surprise from the front again. A laser bolt skimmed Ahsoka's glove, startling her and enraging Anakin. With a tremendous force push, he sent the B1 droids in the back sailing into the air. Several broke apart against the wall upon impact. The others, Anakin gave some encouragement. They split apart with an iron creak and spark of electricity.
Tris lunged forward and brandished her one-handed gun at the Jedi.
"You'll pay for that one." She threatened. Ahsoka lurched at the same time she did, a calm storm in her azure eyes.
"No." She said and swung her lightsaber horizontally at the narrow part holding her torso to her pelvis. "You will." There was a horrible sound of laser cutting through tough metal, but nevertheless, the droid had been truncated. Tris gave a vile spew of obscenities before Ahsoka plunged her lightsaber down into the droid's head, destroying it permanently. Vince gave no emotion to the death of his comrade but stepped forward. With Ahsoka safely down, Anakin flicked his lightsaber away and the throw severed the head.
"You damn Jedi." It said, clunking heavily against the ground. Curling his fingers, Anakin crushed it with the force. Ahsoka slashed apart the still mobile body as it bumped into the wall. Cole's sudden laughter in the silence startled them. Motormouth stiffened.
"What's so funny?" He trained a blaster on Cole.
"I've been waiting to see the death of those clankers since I've been here. The red one shattered my knee." Motormouth lowered his weapon tentatively. As he helped Cole up from the ground, he took away the blaster.
"Let's get Obi-Wan and head to the hangars." Anakin suggested, beginning to move through the metal carnage.
"What about Rex?" Ahsoka said sharply. "And Kix and Fives?"
"We will not leave them behind." Anakin replied in a dark and fierce tone, making her shrink back some.
"I just want to survey the damage of the Twilight and see if it's in working condition. If so, I was going to have some of you stay behind on it while we continue searching. And if it gets too hot, get out of here."
"We won't abandon you, commander." Motormouth stated firmly.
"That's an order!" Anakin snapped. "If at least you three can escape, get the help of Order. The power of the Grand Republic can bring this place to its k-"
Abruptly, Anakin was interrupted by a voice that came from nobody in the group. The sudden voice was coming from a speaker in the ceiling of the corridor above them. And then they recognized the voice…
"- am trying to preserve what is a beneficial alliance. I assure you, my general stationed here could be of great use. Wat Tambor's reputation is not exaggerated." Dooku spoke with a hint of impatience.
"I am sure he is." Another voice that only Ahsoka recognized. She leaned over to whisper to the others,
"That's the Warden! Guy who's in charge of this place!"
"But I assure you the manner in which I dictate this establishment is exceptional. Our agreement to the Separatists was to pass along information clones leaked during torture. Thus far it has benefitted both of us. My Directors are more than capable as well. You've seen the transformation of your B1 battle droids. Are they not impressive?"
"They are impressive, Warden. But with Wat Tambor's assistance and your ingenious development of the droids, an even stronger army can be manufactured here to fight the Republic."
"I've expressed many times; I don't want this facility to turn into a mass droid production. I am not involved in the wars of the inner planets. Now go. You have wasted enough of my time." The Warden's voice changed, the tone growing darker and the clarity of the speaker crackled.
"You are making a mistake." Dooku insisted, calm.
"No, Count, I assure you…I am not." And with that, the voices stopped.
…
Obi-Wan stared at the fallen doctor. Cody was standing against the wall looking toward the floor. His face was white as a sheet and he was trembling slightly. In a panicked decision, the commander had strangled the doctor until there was a crack of the neck. After that, it slumped to the floor and ceased all movements. Obi-Wan took a deep breath and gazed at Cody.
"The message has been sent." He whispered. "Let's regroup."
Cody didn't move for a moment. At last he nodded and followed the Jedi into the hallway. The door closed behind them, hiding the crime. But was it really a crime? When Cody was holding the doctor around the neck, it didn't feel fleshy underneath the suit. It felt like a weak compilation of cords and cables welded together. He shook his head and tried to forget about it. There were more pressing matters. As they rounded a corner, Obi-Wan and Cody flinched violently, startling another group of beings in the corridor to flinch violently as well.
"You heard the voice over the speaker?" Anakin immediately inquired.
"Voice? No. What voice?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Dooku and the Warden seem to be having a disagreement about the management of this facility." Anakin filled in.
"It's probably why nobody's been searching for us. The Warden is too busy dealing with Dooku's demands." Ahsoka continued. "And I've been to the control room, as well as many other rooms in this place. The Directors haven't found us because they do not have the chip readers to find our location."
"And I'll bet there's certain levels they aren't permitted to go." Motormouth said, mostly to himself.
"The Warden probably allowed the conversation to go all over the facility to let his Directors know he is in trouble." Cole said suddenly. "I suspect there will be a war with the two of them. Perhaps in the midst of it we can escape."
"They won't be the only participants." Obi-Wan said. "Yoda has received our message. With hope, he is bringing a fleet to our rescue."
"Great." Anakin drawled and rolled his eyes. "What if they come to rescue us after we leave? I hope the Twilight is in good enough condition to send them a message."
"Then let's start for the hangars and look at our options. I assume they'll take the Correlian Trade Spine to quickly bypass most of the journey. But that still puts them hours before they get here." Obi-Wan suggested.
"That route may only take them so far. When we got here, it took us hours of drifting to even find this place." Anakin added.
Ahsoka followed in the back of the group. Cody walked beside her, his head down and he hadn't said a word. She leaned her head forward to try and meet his eyes.
"Cody? Are you all right?" She asked.
"I killed one of the doctors." He mumbled.
"You did? Why are you…" She didn't want to use the term 'haunted'. After they left, everybody would be haunted. If they even did leave.
"The doctor…" Cody shivered. "He said if we leave Zeres the chips will do something. It will kill us probably. We're talking of leaving but the one fact everyone keeps forgetting is that some of us…may not even be able to leave alive."
…..
Slipping into the hangars was trickier than expected. A Trandoshan was chattering to a number of droids and two doctors strangely enough. If they weren't careful, they'd expose themselves to numerous pairs of eyes. The Trando was speaking of a corpulent man with vines protruding from its back. Anakin dodged around fighter starships and broken down shuttles. It was easy to sneak with just Ahsoka. The other half of the group remained behind a huge shuttle until Anakin could assess the damage on the Twilight and perhaps locate another suitable escape method. Cole's metal leg would only clang loudly against everything and give away their position.
"It looks bad, master." Ahsoka admitted, evaluating the Twilight.
"I know. It's missing one whole wing." He scanned around the hangar. Dooku's solar sailor was still present. In the back of his mind, he worried that either the Warden or Dooku would be killed…and neither would serve justice for their heinous actions.
Anakin pointed subtly.
"That there. It's a medical transport. It will fit all of us and be discreet enough to escape."
"Should we put somebody in a starship in case it comes to an aerial battle?" Ahsoka asked.
"Good point. I didn't think of that. Unfortunately, none of these starships I recognize very well." His eyes fell in the sleek, black starship that had shot them out of the sky…it felt like months ago since it has happened.
"Maybe I'll commandeer the black starship. The purple lasers were powerful enough to bring us down. We'll use it against them." Anakin said.
"I just hope you can fly it without killing us or yourself." Ahsoka muttered. Just then, she caught sight of a clone crouched by the Twilight. She caught herself before she got too excited. Nudging Anakin's arm with a hand, she pointed and whispered.
"Master…I think that's Kix! Over there by the Twilight."
Anakin ducked down and tried to see what she saw.
"Yep. That's Kix. I can tell by the lack of hair. How the hell did he get all the way out here?"
"I don't know, but we have to get his attention somehow. He needs to know we're ready to leave this prison."
"You sneak over. You're much faster, smaller and quieter. I'll head back to Obi-Wan and relay our information."
"Got it." Ahsoka nodded and began to move around heaps of scrap metal. Anakin vanished behind several starships and made his way back to Obi-Wan.
...
Motormouth was first to spring up when Ahsoka wasn't present.
"Where's Ahsoka?" He demanded.
"She found Kix." Anakin said, ignoring the trooper's rather brash tone. "She's going to let him know he's safe and we're devising a plan to escape. But, the best escape is unflyable. So Ahsoka and I scouted a medic transport that can fit everyone. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan will fly. And I'm going to man the black starship in case we meet resistance."
"That plan is a little flawed." Obi-Wan said. "We've never seen a starship like that. Evidently, it's custom made or one of a kind. What if you can't even turn it on?"
"Well. We'll figure it out. One step at a time. Besides, it's not like that's our only option. We could hide here until Yoda arrives."
"But that could take half a day." Cody spoke up. "The Correlian Trade Spine takes several hours. And then locating Zeres, which is drifting in some random direction, could take more time."
"But they have coordinates from their first distress signal. They can plug it in and follow it here." Anakin insisted, growing weary.
"I suppose." Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully. "But finding the facility on the planet could prove troublesome as well."
Anakin sighed and for a moment kept quiet, at a loss for words.
...
"Kix!" Ahsoka whispered behind the clone. Fortunately, all he did was flinch and hit the deck.
"Commander!" Before he could say anything more, she slid up to him on her knees and began to explain,
"All of us are accounted for. We're hiding in another part of the hangars. Except for Fives and Rex, we haven't heard a word from them." She paused, squeezing her eyes shut. "J-Jesse and Echo are dead."
The color drained from Kix's face.
"Jesse…" He whispered. "How?"
"I don't know." She left out the part with the butchered leg. "I just saw his body." She changed the subject, tired of dwelling on doom and death. "How did you manage to find your way out?"
"After the whole facility went dark-"
"That was me."
"I escaped my cell and meandered for hours until I ended up here. I tried to start up the Twilight and assess repairs. But I'm just a medic." He shrugged. "I can't believe Jesse and Echo are gone…" He lowered his head. "You know in the darkness, while wandering, I found a dead clone in the corridor. He wasn't any of ours. He had no marks. His ankles were in bad condition, but his death was from having his throat clawed out. I don't think he did it himself. His fingers were too clean. But it was odd." Kix glanced toward the droids standing around the chatty Trando. A shiver wrenched Ahsoka away from reality.
When Motormouth and Cody came across Cole trying to escape through a vent…his fingers were red. Red with blood. She turned her head back toward the group, but couldn't see any of them from here. Cole...What have you done…