Sorry, I've been gone for so long, I've been super busy and when I wrote this chapter the first time I wasn't really happy with it, so I scrapped it and started again, so here it is! Elseworlds pt 2
The lower levels of Coruscant…
"How do you know down here so well?" Fives asked as they ducked around another corner.
"When I was a padawan I had to memorize the levels of Coruscant because I would go on patrol with Commander Thorn and Fox."
"And who are we going to see exactly?" Fives asked,
"Someone owes me a favor," she said, knowing the munitions they needed to get inside.
"Well does this someone owe Everest Windcaster or Fives a favor?" he asked, as they inched past some people on the streets.
"Technically they owe Everest Windcaster a favor, so you have to do all the talking." Esinon replied,
"Well it would help if I knew who we were going to see." he snapped,
"You're about to," she said, as they turned into a dark alleyway. Fives could see the dark outline of a togruta,
"Hello Everest, it's been a while." the woman said, Ahsoka Tano emerged from the darkness. Fives stared dumbstruck for a moment at the former Commander.
"Commander Tano?" Ahsoka gave him a confused look,
"Since when do you call me Commander Tano? Fives I would see why, but you."
"Uh-"
"It's a long story, I'm Everest, he's Fives, don't ask questions, just trust us." Esinon interrupted, "We need help getting into the munitions facility."
"Hang on, you have a Jedi with you. That gets you immediate clearance." Ahsoka said,
"Um… yeah, I've kinda been banned after the whole becoming a gray Jedi thing for the safety of myself and the workers if I ever have a little accident." Esinon said,
"Well that's just great, that building is covered from head to toe in security." Fives grumbled,
"Come on, there's probably a back door we can get through," Ahsoka said, pushing past the two, they walked for a few minutes in silence with Ahsoka ahead of them. Esinon has noticed Fives watching the ex Jedi the whole time, Ahsoka had left the order without saying any goodbyes. It came as a shock to everyone,
"Fives… are you ok?" she asked, he glanced over at her, and then focused his eyes back on the ground.
"Yeah, I just thought I'd never see Commander Tano again," he said,
"And you really want to com Rex?"
"Yes, it may not have looked like it, but Rex took her leaving hard," he replied,
"I'm really sorry Fives, but we can't risk it. I promised Ahsoka that she could stay gone, I've had to keep the secret from my own padawan." she said sadly,
"We're here, entrance is just up that ladder," Ahsoka said, she pointed upward,
"Thank you Ahsoka, I owe ya one," Esinon said, beginning her climb up the ladder.
"See you in our next crisis," she said, saluting them before running off into the dark streets of Coruscant. Fives followed Esinon up the ladder as they entered into the munitions factory. Loud banging filled their ears,
"How are you feeling with speed?" she whispered as they crouched behind some boxes,
"Well, if your gonna ask me to do a rundown of the building, I don't think I'm ready for that." he said, she passed him a blaster,
"That's unfortunate," she peeked over the top, "Ok, go check all the offices." she disappeared around the boxes taking off down the hallway. She pushed open each door searching the offices quickly, not having her powers sucked. She finally made it to the last office on the floor, rifling through various drawers, she stopped taking a frustrated breath. She paused looking at the wall opposite her, she walked over, running her black-gloved finger along it searching for seams, she finally found a faulty spot, that was hollow, a compartment! She wedged her fingers in the seam, pulling the metal back, she could see a large book. That was it! She managed to pull the book out, tucking it under her arm. She pressed her comlink, "Fives, I've got the book, let's get out of here." she paused, glancing back at the desk, she opened one more drawer. A blaster, she examined it, along the bottom in aurebresh it read CT-2509. CT-2509, who was that? She would have to check the records later, she dashed towards the door Fives meeting up with her,
"That book is huge!" he exclaimed as they took off to where they had entered.
"Hold it right there!" a voice shouted, both kept running turning their heads as a clone began chasing after them.
"That's not good," she muttered, as he began firing stun blasts. Esinon shoved the book in Fives arms, turning around and firing back, "Get out of here!"
"Esinon, no!"
"Go! That's an order! Get the book to Barry!" Fives nodded, taking off using his speed. Reinforcements came charging around the corner,
"Blaster on the ground now!" another one yelled, she came out from her spot of cover, placing her blaster on the ground and putting her hands above her head. Her hands were quickly wrenched behind her back as they pushed her towards a holding cell.
A few minutes later…
Esinon glared into the eyes of Commander Fox who was staring back,
"So Fives, are you gonna tell me why you and General Everest were breaking into a munitions factory?"
"I'm not saying anything until Captain Rex or General Skywalker gets here." she growled defiantly, she never trusted Fox, especially after he almost killed Ahsoka,
"Let's not make this difficult," he said, placing his hands on the table,
"I could do this all day." she said defiantly, Fox stared into the fiery eyes of the young woman sitting in front of him. He finally relinquished, Esinon winning the stare-off, he walked out of the room talking to a few troopers outside. If she still had the force, she could hear what they were talking about, but she didn't. Not being a Jedi was starting to make her realize how much she actually relied on the force everything, and life without it felt empty. She shook herself from her thoughts as Fox came back with the troopers, placing an icy glare on her face.
"We're moving you to the Republic prison, let's go." the troopers placed her hands behind her back, cuffed them and lead her down a hall. She needed to think of a way to escape before they made it to the prison, but that was difficult with two troopers on either side of her. They walked outside to a waiting speeder that took off into the air, this would be her best opportunity to escape, she quickly assessed the route they were taking, since the prison wasn't far from the temple, she just need to get off there since Republic troops were not allowed inside under any circumstances, safe haven. She pressed down on her thumb joint wriggling her hand out of the cuffs, keeping her arms behind her back so as not to alert the troopers to her escape. She spotted the Jedi temple not far off, the was coming, all she could do was jump and hope someone would catch her. They rounded a corner, now was the time, she leaped out of her seat, shoving the clones' heads down jumping out of the speeder freefalling towards the ground.
Fives could sense something, someone was coming. Without thinking, he dropped the book and opened his arms looking up. A blue and white person was flying towards him, correction, falling towards him. He held his hands up calling on the force to catch the falling person. As they froze in the sky he got a good look,
"Esinon?"
"I knew you'd catch me!" She shouted from above, Fives carefully guided her to the ground,
"Are you ok?" Fives asked, still concerned about the teenager that had literally just fallen from the sky, she spotted the book on the ground, she excitedly ran over picking it up,
"Yeah I am! Now that we have the book," she exclaimed, Barry's emblem began to pulse,
"Oh shoot, I gotta go, that's the signal," he said, pressing the button on his own extrapolator, "Come and get me if you need any help."
"Thank you everything Barry," Esinon said, he stepped through the breach, "Speaking of that, we should probably find somewhere safer, the Coruscant guard is still looking for you." she grabbed her lightsaber from his side, opening a compartment, an extrapolator falling out.
"Hang on," Fives said, "We need to figure out a way to get this book open. I can't get it."
"Come on Fives, that can't be true." she said shoving the lightsaber into his hands, she placed her hands on the sides of the book trying to pry it open, she grunted as she struggled,
"See? Not so easy." he huffed, "And I have super strength."
"My super strength…" she paused, "I think I know someone who can help us."
A few minutes later…
"Friday, can you run that sim again?" Tony asked, watching as the model reconfigured, Peter still working on homework behind him. He spun the model looking at it from all angles, something had to be missing. A slight buzzing started to fill the room, the spiderling's ears perked up, his spidey sense tingling, a foaming blue and white portal began to emerge right in front of the pairs eyes,
"Mr. Stark?" Peter asked nervously, "What is that?" Tony stared at the bluish blob for a moment,
"Esinon," he whispered, at last recognizing the breach from when she had returned the first time. The dirty blond teenager jumped out of the breach with two men behind her, Peter ran over tackling her in a hug.
"Dude!" he yelled as the two embraced, "I thought you'd disappeared,"
"Nah, just sucked out to another dimension. You can't get rid of me that easily Parker," she joked as they let go, still having one arm around each other. Rex pulled off his helmet as Stark stared at the two clones,
"Magnificent," he said starting to walk around the two soldiers, "When Esinon told me about a clone army I thought there was no way, but you two are carbon copies of one another."
"Mr. Stark, meet Fives and Rex, some of the finest soldiers I've ever served with." Esinon said proudly as Fives and Rex stood a little taller.
"This is about the coolest thing I think I'll ever witness, and I've stolen Cap's shield." Peter bragged,
"We know, you talk about it all the time," Esinon shot back,
"Not like your not one to brag,"
"Shut up,"
"And you," Mr. Stark said looking at Fives, "It's like looking into a handsome mirror." he stroked his own goatee.
"I knew he'd like you Fives," she said,
"Uh, I'm still a little confused about who you all are and what's going on General," He replied as Stark turned back to Esinon,
"Big woman in charge, that's my girl." he said, ruffling the young general's hair.
"Fives and Rex, this is Mr. Stark and Peter, or as they're known here… Iron Man and Spider-man."
"Are you guys some of those… meta-humans?" Rex asked,
"No, but the spiderling is." Tony replied, going back to his model. A loud alarm went off throughout the lab, "FRI! Report!"
"There's some sort of strange weather phenomenon," the AI responded, Peter, dashed to the window as the skies turned blood red like the river Nile.
"What is that?"
"It's part of the reason we're here," Esinon said, taking the book from Fives's arms, "It's a long and complicated story, but basically a cosmic being is testing me and Fives for an impending crisis so we switched lives and those red skies are following us. We need your help to get this book open so we can figure out how to set reality right." Tony took the book from her setting it down on a table,
"Alright kid, let 'em have it." Tony said backing up Peter put his hands on the lock in an attempt to crush it under his strength. "Huh. Usually, that works." he started gathering equipment,
"Fives… let's give them some space to work. We should probably figure out who is screwing with reality." Esinon said he nodded still mesmerized by what Tony was now hard at work doing.
"Blondie, do me a favor and get on the weather radar and keep an eye on those skies. Maybe they can give us a clue on how to get this book open." Rex rolled his eyes and obliged, while Fives and Esinon looked for somewhere quiet, she settled on the living room where the tinted red light streamed through the long line of windows. Fives paused staring out at the bustling streets of Manhattan, while Esinon opened the freezer pulling out a pint of ice cream and two spoons. Fives zipped over grabbing one of the spoons enticed by whatever sweet treat was in front of him, didn't matter what it was, it was better than war rations.
"Ok, when we were in the factory in the office with the book in it, I found a blaster with a clone designation on the bottom,"
"What did it say?" Fives asked with a faceful of ice cream,
"CT-2509." Fives stared at her for a second dumbstruck,
"You're kidding," she shook her head, "That's Lance's number."
"He doesn't trust Jedi, right?"
"Never has," he replied,
"Well, we can't assume it was Lance. Someone could have planted that blaster." Esinon said,
"Nope, he's always distrusted the Jedi, so don't you think it's a little coincidental that suddenly a clone has all the power? Plus two days before we switched lives Lance was again asking why we have to listen to the Jedi. It was definitely him." he said,
"Well, what's our plan of action then?" she asked,
"I say we get the book open. I think that's how he rewrote reality, if we get that open, that's our ticket to getting our lives back and Lance landed in a cell."
"Sounds like a plan,"
A few minutes later…
"How's that scope lookin' Blondie?" Tony asked, still focused on the screen spitting out hoards of information and readings on the 'Book of Destiny' as Peter had so named it.
"Not good sir, the lightning is increasing, along with the perimeter of the red skies," Rex said,
"That's not good…" Fives and Esinon walked back into the room, she peeked over Peter's shoulder staring at his monitor.
"What have you guys got?" she asked,
"Well, it radiates some weird energy. This is definitely some sort of mystical something." he said, she glanced at the readings, this was unlike anything she had ever seen, it wasn't magic, but it wasn't breach energy like Cisco had suggested. A blinding blue and white light flooded the room, the book disappeared.
"Come on!" Fives shouted, with the book nowhere in sight.
Inside the munitions factory on Coruscant…
Lance sat dejectedly behind his desk, someone had stolen the book. A blinding light filled the room, the monitor stepping out holding the book. He handed the book to Lance,
"Try harder. Think bigger." he said,
"Yes sir," Lance replied, opening the book back up.
Fives scrambled to his feet looking around, he was in some sort of alleyway on Coruscant. He glanced at Esinon as she struggled to her feet, gripping her head.
"General, are you alright?" he asked, helping her to her feet.
"I'm fine," she grunted, as she leaned against Fives. Her fuzzy vision came into focus a dingy and faded poster hung to her right, she let go of Fives walking over examining the pictures. Large red x's were slashed through faces, Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, Ki-Adi Mundi, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi,
"Paris…" she ran her hand over her young padawan's smiling face, in aurebesh above reading, Wanted: Jedi Traitors 1 billion credit reward. The only face on the poster that wasn't crossed out was Esinon's. "He did it, he changed reality again."
"We need to find somewhere safe," he whispered, as a few armored troopers passed by. They needed to change reality and fast before one of them was killed.
I've always wanted Fives and Tony to meet, thanks for reading!
