Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.
Time-line: a year and a half after Naboo. In case is wasn't clear...
Chapter 9: How Rae got Her Own Ship
It had taken a long year and a half but finally, finally, Rae had her own ship's license. She'd gotten her speeder license after the first two months but actual, space worthy, ships were a good deal more complex than a planet bound speeder. Now she just had to get a ship and she could take a trip out to Kamino and take care of the clones. She didn't have the power to cancel the order for an army, but that didn't mean she couldn't alter a few key factors. The Purge, for one thing, was something she felt did not need to happen. As the Force hadn't sent her dreams of a terrible future once she'd made her decision, nor did it keep her up with discordant noise, she felt fairly confident in her choice. Still, that left the problem of actually buying a ship. "I don't get paid enough for this!" she wailed, dramatically throwing herself onto her couch and hanging halfway over one arm of the third hand piece of furniture. Obi-Wan, who was in the kitchen, laughed at her up-side down pout.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Rae," he said, giving her a smile.
"Mou~!" she moaned, pushing herself further over the arm of her beat up couch. "I'm trying to gather the resources and materials to help you and you're laughing at me~! Not cool, Obi~!" the woman whined. The Jedi resolutely did not pay attention to her. "Come on, I'm trying to help you. Least you can do is help me!"
"Where would you even keep a space ship?" Obi-Wan asked, still focused on the snack he was making. Rae sighed gustily and pulled her torso back up to give him a proper glare. It would have worked... if she wasn't still dramatically sprawled on the couch.
"If I got a small one, like one of your fighters, I could park it in the hanger downstairs," she said. "Right beside my speeder. Or I could possible cut a deal with Jazz and keep it at his garage."
"Fighters are regulated, Rae," Obi-Wan reminded her. "You'd have to get a cargo ship." Rae pouted at him once more.
"But I don't want to be a galactic trucker!" she whined. "I'm fine being a bouncer/baker and any flying I'd do would just be me and maybe one other person." Obi-Wan shook his head.
"Fighters are required to be registered and even then, only law enforcement and the military are allowed. I can't help you," he said. Rae pouted at the Jedi.
"Mou~! Can't you at least pretend to help me?" she asked.
"What do you want me to do, Rae?" Obi-Wan pleaded.
"I don't know! Give me a hint as to where to find a cheap shipyard!" she shot back.
"I've got a mission near a junk yard."
"Take me with you!"
/*/
"Why did you bring me with you?!" Rae wailed, striking out left and right, hitting something more often than nothing. She still couldn't tell you what 'something' was though, which irritated her a bit. A trained fighter should be able to land accurate hits! Granted she was only about half trained but still!
"Stop complaining about a mess you signed up for and help us get out of here!" Obi-Wan called back. Rae growled and kicked a rat-like creature in the head, sending it flying at least five feet.
"You neglected to mention the giant mutant rats!" Rae countered, already moving on to the next target.
"Hey! No-one told us about them either!" Anakin piped up.
"SO NOT MY POINT!" Rae bellowed, driving both fists into the largest of the rat creatures she'd seen. As the current from her shock stick unloaded into its body, the creature gave a bloodcurdling squeal and its muscles twitched wildly. Obi-Wan's blue blade swiftly put an end to the wretched sound.
"Did you have to torment the poor thing?" he asked.
"Well forgive me if my weapon is non-lethal!" Rae answered, her words a little more forceful than necessary as she punched a flying rat monster away from her friend.
"Thanks," Obi-Wan said, dispatching his thirty-third creature.
"No problem," Rae grunted, facing down four at once.
"Hey, uh, Sensei? Not to sound pushy or anything but... maybe we should get out of here?" Anakin asked, eyeing the remaining horde warily.
"Kid's got a point, oh great Kenobi-san!" Rae agreed. "Sure would be great to have an exit strategy!"
"There's a ship, over there," Obi-Wan said, pointing to the west side of the battlefield.
"Great!" Rae cheered, stowing her shock stick and pulling out her trusty blaster. "Get ready to book it, boys! Things are about to get hairy!"
"That was terrible," Anakin called out, somehow managing to make it deadpan. If she hadn't been playing Shoot-a-Rat, Rae might have been impressed. As it was...
"JUST LEG IT WOULD YA?!" she bellowed, blasting rats at a good clip, trusting Obi-Wan to watch her back. Anakin, sensing a butt whooping in his near future if he didn't, ran for the widening gap and the ship. "Let's go, Obi," Rae grunted, taking a few steps forward and mentally growling angry sounding words when her accuracy dipped with the motion. Wordlessly, Obi-Wan put his back against hers and pushed her forward, cutting down rats that dared come near. It was a grueling minute, but the Jedi pair and the bouncer-in-training made it to the ship.
"This thing looks like a piece of junk... but I think it might be air worthy," Anakin said, examining the wreck.
"Just get it started, Boy Wonder," Rae growled, still blasting at the rats. "I don't care if it's just a paperclip, a piece of gum and a prayer, we need to get out of here now and that thing's our best bet."
"On it, on it," Anakin muttered, hands already flying over the rusted metal, trying to make the poor ship start. A few tense minutes later and the old ship rose from the surrounding junk with a roar of challenge.
"Get in!" Rae bellowed over the deep thrum of the engine. Despite their misgivings, both Jedi clambered in. Giving the rats a deathly glare and a few more blaster bolts for good measure, Rae finally heaved herself into the pilot's seat and gunned it.
"YAH!" Obi-Wan shouted in surprise, hastily grabbing hold of the battered chair in front of him. The ship, as luck would have it, was an old two person fighter. Anakin was in the co-pilot/gunner's seat. This, of course, left Obi-Wan out on a wing.
"I know you don't like em, but take my blaster!" Rae called to the Jedi Knight, tossing him the gun. "Shoot like you've never shot before!"
"I just want to let you know, I am not claiming responsibility for this mess!" Obi-Wan yelled as he picked off rats while their ship flew by at speeds far greater than Obi-Wan was comfortable with.
"Duly noted!" Rae shot back.
"Now this is crazy!" Anakin added before the ships guns began firing on the swarming rats down below. "Crazier than Rae on a sugar high, crazy!"
"Thanks for the weapons, Hotshot!" Rae called, deciding to ignore the sugar high comment in favor of not dying. "Now hold on tight! I'mma shake these pests!"
"Wait... RaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAEEEEE!" Obi-Wan attempted to protest before Rae floored it, the nose of their battered craft pointed directly at a solid wall. At the last second, she pulled back on the yoke and flew up the wall. With a wet crunch the wave of mutated rat creatures broke upon the bricks while Rae laughed with wild abandon, adrenaline pumped through her.
"WHOO! What a rush!" she exclaimed. "Let's never do that again!"
"Seconded," Obi-Wan moaned, hunkered as close to the pockmarked metal as he could get. Anakin poked his fingers where they were practically embedded into the partially decomposed backing of his seat.
"I think you broke him," the ten and a half year old remarked. A broken, keening laugh eked its way out of the shaken Jedi Knight.
"Let's get him back on solid ground, yeah?" Rae suggested. "Then we can work on prying him off the frame."
/*/
It took an inordinate amount of time to pry the semi-hysterical Obi-Wan off the junker, Rae abandoning the task to Anakin when she noticed the official looking people headed their way. "So! This was totally my fault so please don't bother the Jedi," she said, cutting them off.
"Miss, we know what happened. There are cameras everywhere around here," one said with a faint smirk. "You'd be surprised by how many people try to steal from this junkyard and need to get rescued." Rae's eyes narrowed and her hands twitched dangerously toward her shock sticks.
"Then where was our rescue, eee~hh?!" she growled, body unconsciously sinking into an offensive stance.
"We figured a pair of Jedi would be more than enough," a second man said evenly, not reacting at all when Rae turned her glare on him.
"Is that so?" she asked pleasantly. Anakin and Obi-Wan, who had finally been removed from the old fighter, winced and shuffled back a step or ten. The officials didn't seem to understand the danger they were in.
"Yes," they said as one. Rae's expression suddenly relaxed and her demeanor turned almost friendly, her shoulders dropping slightly as her weight shifted to her right leg.
Anakin and Obi-Wan hunkered behind the ship.
"Well then, I guess your complete lack of action had nothing to do with the fact that you all had bets on how long it would take before I started begging Obi-Wan to save me," she said sweetly. "Or that you, Antonio, were actually watching the Freeball game between your hometown and Naboo's Lake District team." Now the officials were starting to get uncomfortable, a few disapproving looks being shot Antonio's way. "Now now boys~!" Rae sang, sashaying up to them with a sweet fakefakefakesmile. "I haven't forgotten the rest of you~!"
"May the Force have mercy on them," Obi-Wan breathed. Anakin nodded in wide-eyed agreement.
"How... how do you... ?" a wide-eyed official tried to ask, but that terrifying sweet smile and that predatory playful glint in those oh-so calculating pretty eyes made them choke.
"Ah ah ah~!" Rae sang far too cheerfully, waving a finger mockingly at them. "I'm not finished~! There's still that little bit about Franko over there daydreaming about tossing someone named Painko into the Junkyard and watching him fight to the death. Oh~! And Angelica? She's planning to run away to San Velinzo. I hear it's a hot spot for swoop racers. And your pharmacy?" she said, pointing to the only one in the group who hadn't been named, "They're cutting some of your meds with sugar. Might want to get that checked out man. Stuff like that could mess you up big time. Of course, I haven't even touched on the real juicy stuff yet. Like when you, Franko, use the work computers to play Jedi Knights. Or when Antonio dances to Zanky Beamer during his watch shifts. Seriously dude? I've heard some of Its music and it is an affront to the music industry. You need help. I know a good therapist, want me to set you up? She's really nice."
"Enough enough!" Antonio shouted, his face bright red. "What do you want?!" Rae grinned.
"The junker I used to get us out of that Dungeon and all the paperwork needed for me to legally own it," she declared. "Shouldn't be too hard... should it?" The men whimpered and fled back to their offices. Rae humphed, pleased with herself, before turning to her boys. "You can come out now, no collateral damage!" With matching sighs of relief, Obi-Wan and Anakin made their way back around the beat-up fighter.
"And the fact that you get a completely legal fighter is just, what, bonus?" Obi-Wan asked. Rae laughed evilly.
"Completely, Obi-Wan," she said, then turned a terrifying glare toward the junk yard. "And I'm getting major 'bad juju' vibes off that Dungeon. Something's fishy about all this."
"And what are you going to do about it?" Anakin asked.
"Well, I'm going to meditate on what, exactly, is causing the problem and then I'm going to find a way to blow it to kingdom come. That should take care of that, yeah?" Obi-Wan had nothing to say to that and Anakin was already making a list of repairs Rae's new fighter ship would need. He was almost eleven, not stupid.
/*/
Jazz took one look at his former student laid out under a truly unfortunate looking hunk of rusted metal with a little boy telling her what to do and turned on his heel. "I'm too sober for this," he muttered. The man standing beside him chuckled wryly, holding out a mug.
"It may not be liquor, but it helps," he said. Jazz took the mug and a cautious sip... before draining the whole mug when the boy started telling Rae off.
"This happen often?" Jazz asked. The ginger in robes scoffed.
"Heck no," he said. "There's usually weapons involved."
"The boy teaches her...?"
"Oh no," the likely Jedi corrected. "Rae's usually the one to reprimand Anakin for being an idiot while correcting his form with strikes from her shock stick." Jazz blinked, then gave a sound of realization.
"Oh. You must be Obi. Kid's told me a lot about you and Ani," he said. Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow at the mechanic.
"Isn't she a bit old to be called kid?" he asked. Jazz shrugged.
"She hasn't complained yet," he said. "Even gives me that cocky smirk when I yell it at her." Obi-Wan snorted indelicately into his rather large mug of tea.
"Yes, that sounds like Rae," he allowed. "What has she told you about us?" Jazz grinned and leaned against the wall.
"That you're a worrywart, troublehound who got saddled with a baby brother who's just as prone to trouble as yourself, if not more so. That you're in over your head and too stubborn to admit it but somehow managing to be a functional being. She's sung praises to your patience, wit, endurance; both physical and mental, and cried for the tragedies of your past. Didn't go into detail on that last one and I didn't push, just so ya know. A man's past is his business," he said, giving Obi-Wan a pointed look. The Jedi bowed his head in acknowledgment and took another sip of tea.
"Anything else?" he prompted.
"Well... she did say you're like a mother tooka for that boy of yours. 'Guy's like a perfectly roasted marshmallow: a nice, crunchy, golden crust on the outside and a warm gooey center; especially for little Ani,' as she put it. And she had a ridiculously soppy look on her face too. Asked if she had a crush on you. She laughed and said, 'I'd have to be a blind idiot not to love Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jazz. I'm just enough of a realist not to expect it to go anywhere.' Had a real wistful look on her face."
"She... she said that?" Obi-Wan asked, soft and confused with a hint of awe. Jazz had the urge to kneecap some fools because gosh darn it Rae was right about this one.
"Sure did, and I can see why," Jazz told him, taking another drink. Obi-Wan was staring at him now, blue-gray eyes focused on something more than Jazz's face. "You're just about everything we grow up believing Jedi should be; strong and wise but gentle and caring; but you're also so very... real. You laugh, you tease, you roughhouse... and you even go so far as to make tea for a virtual stranger when you notice them having a hard time." Obi-Wan hummed, looking away.
"But... I'm not the perfect Jedi," he said softly. Jazz snorted.
"Way I see it, that's a good thing," he said, causing Obi-Wan's attention to snap back to him. "Look, I'm not going to pretend I understand Jedi culture, but a lot of the Jedi don't seem real. They're... cold. Distant. More figure's of myth and legend than someone you call for help. You though... you're warm and inviting, despite still holding a slight air of mystery. Just like Rae said you were." Obi-Wan looked away and Jazz huffed. "Eh! Enough about that. You said she corrects him with her weapon?" The Jedi seemed to appreciate the subject change, even if it was far less elegant than said Jedi would have been.
"That's correct," he said, a slight, fond smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"And you let her?" Jazz asked, looking at the composed Jedi beside him.
"If I didn't, I'd be a hypocrite," Obi-Wan admitted, taking a sip of his own drink. "She finds a certain pleasure in defeating me unarmed then picking apart the whole fight in excruciating detail." Jazz would have gagged had he been drinking.
"She beats you?" he asked. Obi-Wan nodded solemnly.
"And then I beat her with training sabers. It all evens out in the end," he said seriously. Jazz just stared at him.
"You're insane. All of you. Absolutely barking."
"Woof~! Woof~!" Rae sang cheekily from the hanger. Obi-Wan's genuine laughter followed Jazz as the man beat a hasty retreat.
/?/
A/N: Jazz is So Done, Obi-Wan Hates Flying, and Rae is... Rae. Also, for those curious, I've decided that her fighter is an absolutely ancient FT-7B Clarion from the Old Republic era. Do I have an idea of how it managed to be in somewhat working order some 3,000 years later? No. Is it the only fighter I could find that matched the description prior to the Clone Wars? Yes. Deal with it!