TO YOUR LEFT!"
Ahsoka sidestepped just in time to avoid the blaster that had been aimed in her direction, she felt another one from behind her and quickly brought up her lightsabre to deflect the blast back at the assailant, the man fell to the ground in agony and was swiftly taken care of by Vos, Ventress used her double white lightsabres to keep the horde of scum off them as they fired away without mercy, but the nightsister wasn't giving in that easily, she had Tano and Vos' backs as they had her's.
"DIE JEDI SCUM!" One disfigured woman screeched, only to be silenced at a moment later by Ventress' lightsabre through her throat.
"I'm no Jedi" she corrected the dying woman, before pulling the lightsabre out and watching as the woman gasped for air and collapsed on the litter-strewn ground.
"SNIPERS!" Quinlan quickly noted, as Ahsoka felt a sudden, urgent need to hold her sabre right towards her face, which was lucky because a second later a powerful sniper blast had deflected off her sabre, aimed directly at her head. The force of it however was strong and sent her sabre flying from her hands, she went to use the force to retrieve it, but instantly a fat besalisk had flattened her on the ground and pulled out a primitive knife to her throat.
"eelllppp…" Ahsoka choked to whoever could hear her, the weight was crushing her.
Help wouldn't come, her attacker was digging his blade into her face, drawing blood and steadily trailing towards her neck...
She remained calm and closed her eyes, willing the force to bring her lightsabre back to her, she felt it roll into her grip seconds later and activated it, this simple act sent it through her assailants head, as he stiffened and collapsed on her, struggling to free herself she blindly slashed her lightsabre around when she felt several pairs of dirty hands attempt to tug her prized weapon away, this resulted in screaming and several detached arms decorating the ground around her, finally with a last wheeze, she was able to roll her deceased attacker off her and instantly got to work in slaying the filth who'd attempted to rob her lightsabre once again, the were weak but they had great numbers.
"Snipers have been dealt with!" Quinlan mused, suddenly dropping next to her, blood coating his clothes and dreadlocked hair.
"How impressive, have you been keeping count?" Ventress asked from where she was back to back with Ahsoka, deflecting even more shots aimed in their direction.
"No, should I?" Quinlan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just saying, I've been doing the most work here, with my lightsabre's" Ventress argued.
"and what was it you said about not using Lightsabre's but the force down here?" Ahsoka inquired, slashing at another approaching criminal.
"Different scenario" Ventress argued back "This is an ambush Ahsoka, tell me if you can make a force bubble that stops blaster shots and then we'll talk about using the force..."
"I think I will actually" Ahsoka said, looking around and actually seeing the surroundings instead of the instant, approaching, threats, she saw the majority of their attackers had emerged from a crumbling warehouse they'd probably been squatting within "Cover me Quinlan, I have an idea!"
"It better work!" the reckless Jedi replied.
Ahsoka focused, and felt herself sweating as she concentrated on the warehouse... any second now...
Then it was over, the warehouse collapsed in a loud crashing of dust and debris that crushed many of the criminals inside, or those running to kill the three lightsabre duellists, the clearing was suddenly quiet, having proved their point everyone else scampered like stray dogs, leaving only one, half dead criminal, alive in the rubble.
"Now" Ventress said, lifting him with the force "We are on Level 530, are we close to Aurra Sing, to Cad Bane?"
The criminal smiled back at her.
"You three won't stop them, they have big plans" he replied.
"What plans?" Ventress said attempting to force herself into his mind.
"Ah... I don't know..."
"Speak up, scum!" Quinlan snapped, also attempting to pry open the criminal's mind "Why'd you attack us!?"
"We were... going to prove ourselves... Sing and Bane would reward us niceeelllly….arrrggghhhhhh!" the criminal screamed in pain, with two force wielders invading his mind was too much for him to bear. He couldn't speak and the more Ventress probed, the less she found.
"He doesn't know anything, he's just an underling without a brain and too much ego" Ventress summarised "Bane and Sing are apparently at Level 387 the last he knows, so we are getting closer"
and with that she snapped his neck, leaving the criminal dead on the ground of his make-shift destroyed home. Ahsoka felt herself shudder silently, she knew it was essential they had to kill down here, but it still made her uneasy and she couldn't accept the way Ventress coldly moved on, or how Quinlan himself treated this is another carefree mission. Both of them walked on instantly, leaving Ahsoka in their shadow.
"By the way, I did count" Quinlan informed her "and I killed 12 back there".
"17" Ventress purred back "Quinlan, dear, I'm afraid you lose this round".
"I think my skills with the force can be accounted for" Ahsoka interjected.
"Did you keep count?"
"Well no..." Ahsoka muttered, wiping blood from her face from where she'd been attacked with the knife earlier, "I don't understand how you two do, in the heat of the battle, I mean I tried with my master..." she sighed there, remembering those times. Or when they'd made a tally of their droid kills during the second battle of Geonosis.
"Well, that's a skill you'll have to learn" Quinlan said "So where to tonight ladies? A lovely, spacious warehouse once again? Shit and urine stains as paint? A great value of 0 republic credits on the market..."
"The only spacious thing I'm going to make, is the hole I'll crave into your chest if you carry on" Ventress snapped, smiling nevertheless, the former sith apprentice had grown admittedly fond of the carefree Quinlan Vos in the past couple of days. He certainly made this gloomy mission a lot lighter than it should have been and he had the rare talent of making her laugh, something she hadn't really done in such a long time.
"That will break my heart, sweetie" Quinlan replied "Quite literally, so... um... yeah. Don't"
"Aww..." Ventress purred "What's a matter pretty boy? Afraid the mean Nightsister is going to leave a scar?"
"Well, depends on what scar you want to leave" Quinlan mused "I wouldn't mind a certain few from you and may I just say, the hair you have growing back on your head, it makes you look gorgeous..."
"You may not say that" Ventress snarled, placing a few fingers through her hair anyway "and what are you looking at!?" she snapped suddenly, turning to face Ahsoka who lay almost forgotten behind them "Why do you look...so scared".
Ahsoka shook her head.
"Nothing, just tired" she replied, yet in her mind she prayed to whatever God or Gods were listening to her that Quinlan Vos and Asaji Ventress were not (under any letter of the law) flirting or showing genuine interest in each other, because dealing with these criminals and the underworld in general was as horrible enough as it was, but seeing this cheesy, cringy, gross romance playing out in front of her... yeah she'd rather not witness that true horror. Besides, she had many other things to focus on.
Like a certain two bounty hunters that would be awaiting them.
"Well, enjoy your last meal Tup before we end up in the down there" Fives told him, the pair of clones had disguised themselves. Tup had dyed his hair blonde whereas Fives had placed coloured contacts in his eyes. Both of them kept their armour hidden beneath layers of dark clothing, so unless someone really looked at them, no one would know they were clones. In this restaurant the pair of them had decided to enjoy a last, delicious meal before heading down into the dark and dirty underworld.
"I've rarely ever tried meat" Fives admitted taking a bite out of his meal.
"I never have" Tup admitted "Trying this food, it's the first thing I've eaten that isn't a ration bar".
"We deserve this bit of luxury at the very least" Fives said "Are you enjoying it?"
"This is... incredible" Tup told him, eyes bright and smile firmly locked in place.
"This isn't a five star restaurant Tup, calm yourself" Fives told him.
"Yeah, but it's proper food!" Tup exclaimed in joy "I don't think I can go back to ration bars after this. Eating food is one thing, but those bars don't taste of anything, but this... I can actually enjoy this food..."
"Well I'm glad someone's happy" Fives said "Because while our brothers are out there..."
"We're here, so what!?" Tup inquired, stuffing himself "You offered to do it".
"Only because Rex has was trying to martyr himself once again" Fives said "He's our Captain, I don't think he realises how important he is to the 501st... he..." Fives sighed there, he wanted to tell Tup about Rex's connection with the force but he'd promised Rex he'd keep that secret, besides, if Rex saw sense he'd realise how good his powers could have been and the rest of the clones would hear it from him.
"He... he is needed by Skywalker's side" Fives finished, he looked at where Tup continued to eat away "You know, you didn't have to come with me".
"I wanted to" Tup replied simply, swallowing his food rather loudly "To be honest, I wanted to be away from the senate, but I'm also not sure about General Skywalker, I still remember him force choking me in his rage, I know he was angry, but... I wanted to be away from all of that. From him... he... I know it sounds ridiculous Fives but I just can't trust him after that".
"You went through something traumatic Tup" Fives said "In time, I'm sure you'll come to trust him once again".
"I hope, but I much prefer being here at the moment, it's almost like being on a date" Tup mused.
"Oh what... with your pretty blonde hair and my pretty blue eyes..." Fives said sarcastically "We'd make quite the pair".
Tup laughed at this and Fives soon found himself laughing along with him, for just a brief moment they were able to enjoy themselves, having a normal meal and drink, like regular people and not soldiers going from battle to battle.
"But seriously... I'm glad you're here" Tup said, when the laughter had died down.
"Ah... you too Tup" Fives said, the true warmth of their friendship coming to the fore, so much so Fives felt his face grow warm as he ducked his head, "But erm… anyway...plans..." he stuttered.
"Yeah" Tup said "I say we head on down to Level 500 and make our way from there, I'm sure Ahsoka can't be too far..."
A/N: The story continues, Tragicfiction will Rex get a lightsabre? Only time will tell, but I'm glad you're enjoying the story! We'll see Rex and Anakin next chapter, before we get a massive arc on Mandalore for Obi-Wan and Maul. Please feel free to leave more reviews on what you like and what you don't, anyway next chapter should be out Thursday, hope you all enjoyed this one!