A/N: This episode is based off one of my favorite Clone Wars episodes, "Cloak of Darkness." Hope you like it and don't think of it as a complete and total rip off.
They couldn't have been more unprepared. Within hours the Kamino cloning facility sank into the sea, only a fraction of their fighting force survived. It's miraculous the Jedi also survived. Windu did very well to pick up the pieces and saved tons of resources that otherwise would have been lost.
It wasn't all bad. Thanks to Kyle's last second heroics he saved his master, and also captured Ventress. She kept a consistent scowl, unable to fathom the idea some kid landed his one and only lucky shot putting her in this predicament. Even though her plan went off seemingly without a hitch, the ultimate fly in the ointment for her is the fact she got caught. Even if she escapes, her Master won't look at her as anything more than a liability and be subjected to a downgrading below the bloodsucking leach known as Grievous.
The Republican fleet, what's left of it, lead by Admiral Yularen. Windu was berating him for his inability to stave off the invading Confederate forces. Windu immediately stripped him of his title of Admiral and was court-martialed, expecting to be taken to trial once back on Coruscant.
"This system is falling apart." Windu exclaims. If he had any hair left it already be pulled out of his scalp.
Meanwhile, Kyle was being tended to by a medical droid after waiting for hours for his turn. He wanted to go first, but the rows of soldiers in need of assistance made Tera push him down the waiting list. She said it was to teach him "honor."
"What's 'honorable' about sitting here while my arm bleeds out?" He asks grumpily.
"For one thing, you're showing those who served alongside you the value of good leadership and setting an example." She retorts.
"But they're older than me!" He snaps back.
"Still, you're their commander and you shouldn't show favoritism to yourself ever." She explains sternly. Kyle could either accept these terms willingly or nag incessantly and look bad.
"Okay, you're right." He sighs.
His patience didn't pay off. The medical droid was all out of gauze and painkillers. They were able to provide him a shoulder brace after disinfecting his wounds. He must've bit his teeth so hard he heard them crack. "Why don't you get some rest?" Tera asks, taking pity on his situation.
"Nah. I'm fine. Besides if I'm alone all in left with is my unbearable pain." Kyle comments dryly.
"Oh..." Tera shuddered. The poor child couldn't bear the indescribable pain. "Aren't you going to interrogate Ventress?" He asks. Tera and Windu had already taken care of that. Ventress confirmed what Windu suspected. Admiral Yularen was a double-agent. The Galactic Republic is filled with them. Before Kyle's appearance on Christophsis, a Clone trooper named "Slick" gave away critical information on the republic's defenses of the city. Could've lost them the battle. In this case, the turncoat acting as the admiral did just that.
"So what are we going to do?" He asks.
"She'll be tried in a republic court for her crimes." Tera explains. "She has more secrets inside her. It's imperative we get her back to Coruscant. We can't interrogate her again until her brain has recovered. Master Windu and I had to prob her mind with the Force. She was a tough nut to crack. Nearly killed her." She admitted.
"Sounds excessive." He tells her. Tera didn't disagree. But these particular set of circumstances made her more willing to go against the norms.
Tera continued to insist Kyle rest. It was ridiculous. Like mother sending her child to bed in preparation for the school day tomorrow. Like he said earlier, the ineffable agony wouldn't let him sleep. Kyle decided to venture to the engine room, figuring he could keep himself busy and not get caught. In the corner of his eye the sight of a lanky, rusty droid laid against the wall. His lone yellow eye flickers. Kyle kneels and observes the writing on its chest area.
"Whoa! A holodroid. You bad boys could assume the image of anybody." Finding a discarded tool box he got to work bringing the droid back to life.
(Scene break)
"This is unfathomable." Count Dooku stresses to his apprentice via hologram. Dooku towered over Grievous despite being taller than him in actually. He always stressed his apprentices needed to kneel when adressing him and keep their heads down.
"My Master, we could do without her." Grievous always wanted the assassin out of the way. It means more killing for him.
"Your ego keeps you from seeing the broader picture, General. Ventress' mind is weak and susceptible to a Jedi probing of her mind. She'll give away all of our secrets." Dooku cleared up any misconceptions Grievous had that this was his time to assume the mantle of Dooku's most prominent pet.
"Get her back or we lose all of our gains from Kamino." The transmission ended leaving Grievous to stir in his rage of now having to save his rival.
"Turn the ship around, we're hunting down the fleeing Jedi!" He growls to his already cowering droid subordinate. Grievous was growing tired of these droids, how easy they were to scare. It was the only part of the job he could describe as stale.
"Should we let the Jedi know they are about to be boarded?" One of the droids asks in their typical nagging, squeaky voice. Grievous knocks it head clean off with a swat. Why is it those godforsaken bugs on Geonosis couldn't make battle droids who spoke in a regular tone of voice?
"Just open fire when we are within distance of their fleet. I'll board the ship holding Ventress myself." He said.
"But sir, how will you know which-"
"Find the ship that's holding her, you worthless piece of trash!" He terrorizes the pencil necked subordinate, who holds his claw like hands up defensively. "Put your hands down, you and i both know that droids don't feel pain." He explained. "Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots."
Ramming into two frigates spread out guarding the rear of the main capital ship, two starfighters escorting it basically attached to the nose of the ship. The republic was better prepared for an attack. "What is our status?" Grievous asks tactical droid 98. A bulky built designed to act as the right hand man to the general.
"Our shields are up to eighty percent. We have four droid tri-fighters." He answers in his flat tone of voice fitting the appearance of his dead eyes.
"We're in better position than I thought." Grievous comments dryly. "They are undermanned. Open fire, begin boarding protocol."
(Scene break)
Kyle tinkered with the droid figuring it was worthy of to waste time on until they reached Coruscant. He learned a little about how to repair droids during his life outside of the temple. His father ran an engineer shop repairing protocol droids. He could always fix them no matter how run down they were. Although, he couldn't change their voice to something less nagging and ear splitting. Kyle couldn't stand protocol droids. There's this one gold plated humanoid looking one who just gets on his nerves to no end.
The holodroids eyes came alive, startling Kyle with their incessant flickering. It took a brief while for the droid to find the right tone of voice, it radically shifted from deep, to high-pitched, speaking in many languages at once before revolving into unintelligible gibberish. Finally, it spoke clean basic.
"Holodroid 2803 is at your service." He introduces himself the way all droids do.
"There's two-thousand-eight-hundred three of you?" Kyle asks.
"It's the number on my barcode, sir." Kyle looked at the holodroids chest area again and found the numbers. It's been a while since Kyle's had a good night's rest, his mind is becoming punchy.
"Well, my name is Kyle. I repaired you. Mind showing me what you can do?"
"Certainly." 2803 shuts abruptly down right after. Kyle assumes either the droids circuits were cooked or his battery was in need of charging. But the holodroid quickly sprung back to life and assumed the form of Kyle, the real Kyle fell backwards and trembled igniting his lightsaber. "Did I do something wrong, sir?" 2803 asks innocently. "I mean you no harm. I can't even physically harm you. It isn't in my programming."
"Oh" Kyle gathers himself and stands back up, switching his weapon off. "So what are you for?" 2803 reassumes his original appearance, making Kyle feel a little more comfortable that he wasn't basically having a conversation with himself.
"I am a training droid for Younglings." He replies.
"So you train babies?" Kyle asks. 283 nods.
"There are deadlier versions of me. Model 3731 nearly killed Master Qui-Gon Jinn during a sparring session, and the 3229 model slayed Jedi Knight Cin Drallig just a year ago." Kyle remembers hearing about that. He assumed Drallig bit the dust fighting a brave battle in the Outer Rim where he was stationed at the time.
"I'd be happy to spar with you right now." 2803 offers. Kyle looks at his shoulder brace and groans. He can't fight. He couldn't even raise his right arm above his head.
"I'll have to pass." He said regretfully. A familiar clunking sound met his ears, Kyle's mind ran to the possibility the Confederates must've found them. A wall twenty-feet from them began to burn up and turn a deep shade of red. Kyle knew what this meant and took cover.
"Excuse me sir, may I ask-" 2803 surely would have gotten Kyle killed if he wasn't pushed back down and switched off.
"Are all droids programmed like Threepio?" He proposed that must be he case because how could so many cold-hearted be so dangerously tone-deaf?
Battle droids of the "Super" variety walked out first to make sure there wasn't anyone who could ambush Grievous upon entry. When the coast was clear, the warrior general came out of the shadowy abyss and into the light. "I will find the assassin and bring her back. The rest of you, stay here and deconstruct the engine room. Let's cripple this ship so we could blast it from the atmosphere." He orders.
Kyle couldn't use his com-link to vocally call for his master's help. The droids would surely hear. He eagerly typed in a message, though he had to do it via coded text due to the lack of a keyboard. Switching 2803 back on, he pushed his palm to the droids mouth to make sure he didn't blow their cover.
"Do you know coded text?" He asks. 2803 shakes his head, Kyle sighs. "The one time I need Threepio. Okay. I think I remember how to do this."
(Scene break)
Yularen unapologetically just stated he'd do it all again. Betray the republic for the savagery of the opposition. In the middle of the interrogation, Tera's com-link vibrated making her wrist tickle. She tried shutting it off, but the constant string of notifications made her believe this was urgent. "What is it, Tera?" Windu asks.
"It's from Kyle 'Enemy on ship. Break out prisoner. Engine room up up, bad.'" She reads quietly. Windu looks confused, then the pieces fell in place for him.
"The Separatists are trying to break out Ventress and destroy our ship." He answers.
"I never knew I'd be teaching my Padawan coded text." She reminds herself to do so later. "Wait. How does he know the droids are in the-" She groans. "He's in the engine room. Idiot."
"It's likely General Grievous is here too. I'll handle him, you go retrieve your Padawan." Windu tells her.
(Scene break)
Deflecting blaster bolts was never Kyle's calling card, so he uses the room to his advantage taking refuge into the shadows and ambushes droids and disconnecting the recently placed charges. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance, sir?" 2803 volunteered.
"I thought you said physical harm wasn't in your programming?"
"It'll take some reprogramming, but that can be changed."
"I only know how to repair. I'm no reprogrammer." He tells him.
"Perhaps your Master is." 2803 asks.
"My Master isn't-" He looks over the pipe to see Tera taking on a battle droid, serving as the perfect distraction for Kyle to take on the other one. It took an awful lot of slashes, the super battle droids are made of durasteel and can withstand punishment. Their only weakness is their red eye located on the left chest plate. Jamming his weapon into the red eye his robotic opponent malfunctioned and fell over. Tera finished off the last battle droid with more ease.
"I told you to stay in your quarters." She chastises.
"I can handle myself, I don't need to hide from danger." He tells her defiantly.
"I don't doubt that, I just want you to be safe." She sighs softly. "Come on, we need to keep the Grievous from breaking Ventress free."
(Scene break)
"You look worried, Jedi." Ventress teases Windu who stationed himself by her cell to wait for the general. He didn't respond to her taunts. Next to her was the turncoat admiral, eagerly awaiting escape as well. Tera and Kyle were able to link up with the Clones and destroyed a good portion of Grievous' droids, but the warrior was nowhere to be found.
"The slimy snake slipped past us." Tera curses. "Stay here, kill any droid you find. I'm going to help Windu keep Ventress confined."
"I can-" Kyle was about to say he could help her beat Grievous, she seemed to know what he was going to say and cut him off harshly.
"I know you think you can beat Grievous because you held your own against Ventress. But she was going easy on you. If she wanted to, she could have killed you. Please stay here. The men need you." She pleads to the better judgement of her student, of which Kyle reluctantly obliged.
"Okay, Master. I'm sorry." He says softly. "I'm here if you need me."
"I was about to say the same thing to you." Tera smiles and then turns to leave.
(Scene break)
Windu's worst fears were realized. The infamous General Grievous had found him and had little interest in exchanging pleasantries. "Out of my way, scum!" Grievous spat, while coughing madly. His mechanical lungs were in need of a dialysis.
"You will not advance any further, General. Surrender your men and no harm will come to you." Windu knew there wasn't a snowballs chance in Hell Grievous would take this offer, but it is customary for the Jedi to offer their enemies a chance to go quietly before dealing in absolute. Grievous had heard these pitiful lines before. It isn't even funny to him anymore. Just tedious.
"Okay, Jedi, I surrender." His actions do not match his words. Grievous withdrew two lightsabers, one green and the other blue. The warrior got his adrenaline high killing Jedi and absconding with their weapon to keep as trophies. Rumor around the galaxy is, Grievous as hundreds of Jedi "trophies."
Windu's purple blade met Grievous' blue. Though Grievous' long mechanical arms gave him a discernible advantage over the Jedi, the cramped hallway negated it all. Grievous could only fight with one hand. The hallway could barley fit his puffy chest, and he couldn't move his limbs around freely. There are advantages to being mostly machine. Grievous ducks from a swing and rolls into a ball, using the curves of the wall for momentum, rolling over Windu's head and landing right next to Ventress' cell.
The general laughs like a child in a candy store right before he frees Ventress. "General, why am I not surprised." She hums. He growls.
"Take this weapon and let's kill this Jedi so we can escape!" He hands her one of his trophies. Asajj wasn't one to use a lightsaber that wasn't her own. Her typical weapon sported a curved hilt which played right into her fighting style centering around being fast paced and unpredictable.
(Scene break)
Kyle notices how things are far too quiet in the control room. No one is conversing with one another or prepping for a potential attack. "Hey, what's going on?" He asks one of the Clones. "What's with the lack of urgency?" The Clones look at each other.
"We-" Kyle catches a Clone trying to scurry off. "Hey!" Kyle gives chase and tackles him. "What are you doing?!" The Clone snaps, he tries to break free, but Kyle compensates for being outmuscled by holding the Clone at lightsaber point.
"Why were you running?"
"To the hanger." The Clones struggles to say.
"Why?" Kyle's question is answered immediately by the sound of pistols cocking. He sighs. "You gotta be kidding."
"Sorry, kid. We've had a sudden change of heart." Who on this ship isn't a traitor? Kyle though.
Some Clones weren't in one the job. Kyle seen two more traitors hold their brothers up at gunpoint. He slowly clips his lightsaber to his belt, slyly grabbing an itty bitty smoke grenade. The cloud of tear inducing smoke wouldn't be big, or work sufficiently to blind the Clones as they wore helmets. But this was Kyle's only ace in the hole. Closing his eyes, his thumb hanging over the red butting of the device crushed into his palm he left his fate up to the Force.
Performing a backflip over the Clones, he drops the grenade and smoke the smoke provides him excellent cover to kill the treacherous men. The scene served as a big enough distraction for the loyal Clones to retake control. One traitor is shot, and the other is cold cocked right in his exposed cheek. "You traitors sicken me!" The Clone wanted to kill his brother in cold blood, he peered into his sorrowful, scared eyes and realized he couldn't.
"I take it you're the loyal ones?" Kyle asks half-heartedly. The loyal Clones nod. "Fantastic. You're coming with me."
"Where, sir?" A Clone asks.
"The hanger bay. Let's repel these junkyard rejects!"
"Master," He contacts Tera through his com-link. "Some of my Clones turned on me. Be on the lookout. Keep one eye on them." As if they already didn't have their hands full.
"Thanks for the heads up." She replies.
"There are tons of Clones in the hanger bay. I haven't heard anything from them. I'm going down to see if the C.I.S broke in." He tells her. "Make sure you look over your shoulder." His Master advises. A sly way of communicating to him his Clones, while some appear loyal are only waiting for an opportune time to strike.
Luckily, the shields held up and not many of the Confederates were able to gain entry into the capital ship. Only two C.I.S carriers managed to sneak in. "Let's get them before they spread out." Kyle usually wasn't so aggressive, but the recent surge of adrenaline acted as a confidence booster and made him bolder as a commander. The C.I.S droids were diminished and turned into scrap metal. But countless Clones lay at Kyle's feet. Turns out the shields didn't hold.
"Master" He again reaches out to Tera.
"Kind of busy right now, kid. Is there an emergency?" Tera asks hastily.
"No." Kyle says curtly. "Let's just destroy this C.I.S ship."
(Scene break)
Tera arrived just in time to assist Master Windu before the mite of Dooku's deranged students overwhelmed him. "Your plans have been foiled, General. It's just us now." Tera informs him. "Your attempts to kill us all and sabotage our ship have failed."
"Oh, I didn't realize I was in a losing situation." Grievous mocks, pressing down on Tera's blade. Windu handled Ventress and was going to town. She was no match for the experienced Jedi Master. He even managed to kick her back in her cell. If she was a split of a second slower, she'd be confined once again.
"How about a trade?" It killed her to ask Grievous for such a thing. But there was a time to put ego aside and this was it. They switched dance partners, Ventress readied herself for Tera once more.
"Where's your boy? Did I scare him?" She taunts. Tera smirks.
"He's somewhere, just waiting to kick you in the face." Her insults were childish, yet they amused her. It was gratifying to see her student hold her again against Ventress and, even if it's by happenstance, win.
They met in battle once again. Now worn down, Ventress couldn't fight the style she's accustomed to and adopted a more methodical pattern. Relying on quick, swift uses of Force augmentation to confused Tera. To make her think one attack was coming, when it was the other. Tera felt felt daring, and when their savers locked, she harshly grabbed Ventress' wrist and pulled her close, breaking bones in the process. Ventress howls in pain. A state Tera's never seen the assassin in before. She hits Ventress' heart with the hilt of her lightsaber. Before Ventress could regain her breath, she found herself on the ground staring at the long blade of Tera's Jedi weapon.
"It's over."
Ventress knew those Jedi lightsabers were good for nothing.
Grievous finally got the upper hand on Windu, his claws digging into the skin of his neck he threw the Jedi across the hall, knocking Tera off her feet. When they both got back to their feet the two apprentices were on their way out. No order was needed to be given, the Jedi went after them.
Kyle was on his toes, giving all the Clones a suspicious look. The sound of metal clanking against the floor coming faster and louder towards them took his attention. "Get ready" He told his men timidly. Grievous and Ventress rolled into the hanger bay and proceeded to make quick waste of the Clones.
Ventress jumped down to the apron and leered at Kyle. "We meet again."
"Did you go through all this trouble just for a rematch?" Kyle knew he was baiting Ventress into doing something rash. They collided and their lightsabers locked in a feat of strength. Ventress had the upper hand, Kyle was brought down to one knee.
"Your Master isn't here to save you!" She snarls.
"Neither is yours!" He ducks and rolls out the way, surprising Ventress by brandishing a blaster. She deflects a couple of hits shots, expecting to slash his torso when reaching him. He thought fast and back flipped on top of some crates.
"I'd really like to stay boy, but gotta get going." She gestures to the corvette. Kyle's expression immediately turned smug.
"I think your hands are tied." He tells her, pointing to the opposite side of the apron. Tera and Windu were dueling Grievous still and neither side looked ready to budge.
"Not for long." Ventress says unnaturally, unsettling Kyle. Yularen appears having also escaped thanks to Grievous. With a few clicks the remaining Clones turned their blasters towards the Jedi. Ventress looks at Kyle filled with self-satisfaction. She turns to run to her transport, as does Grievous, disengaging from his fight. Sadly, the Clones didn't dismantle the corvette allowing the prisoners to escape. Thinking fast, Windu smacks a tracking beacon under the ship before its departure. The two Jedi and the Padawan dispense of the corrupted Clones with ease and are left to observe what had just transpired.
"We'll find them." Windu assures. "I placed a tracker on their ship."
"Better inform the Jedi and the Galactic Republic." Tera said.
"Make sure you tell them the Confederates can hack into our Clone soldiers inhibitor chip. Tera was annoyed Kyle spoke out of turn again, but Windu spoke up and said he was right. Hundreds of Jedi are in danger right now. He left to inform the Jedi, leaving Tera and Kyle alone.
Kyle falls to the floor, his legs turning to jelly. "I never knew being a Jedi would be this hard." He says. That cheered Tera up slightly. Seeing the young boy struggle against the same learning curves she did heartened her.
"You did good." Was all she said and suddenly Kyle felt the whole ordeal was worth every bit of the hassle.
