Present Day
Aurora's POV
Eventually Anakin and I finally reached the cargo hold of the Coronet and walked out of the lift to see the Clones gathered waiting for us.
"Alright men what's the problem, we're missing dinner." Anakin explained and I rolled my eyes.
"Not sure yet." Rex explains. "Still no contact with Mixer and Redeye."
"Redeye?" I questioned. "From my battalion?"
Fox shook his head. "Negative Princess. Redeye is back on Coruscant, awaiting our arrival."
I nodded. "Good."
Just then Artoo and Geenine both rolled up and started beeping rapidly.
"What's wrong?" Anakin asked looking at both droids.
Artoo and Geenine continued to beep.
Anakin nodded. "I know, I know, but we're here now. Use your scanners and see if something is up."
Both droids then deployed their scanners, and we all followed them through the cargo hold. We turned a corner and saw a large open box.
"Well," Cody began. "Looks like the contents of this box are missing."
"Or it got up and walked away." Anakin murmured.
He turned around to face all of us. "Alright, fan out. Separate squads, Aurora and I will contact Obi Wan."
Cody nods and takes two clones and goes in one direction, Rex takes two clones and goes in one direction, and Fox and Shock in another direction.
I turned towards Anakin. "It's cold down here."
Anakin sighed as he activated his commlink. "If I had a coat, I'd give it to you…but you are going to have to suffer for right now."
I rolled my eyes and a few moments later Obi-Wan answered.
"Anakin, have you found anything?" He questioned.
"There's a large open container and the contents are missing. And I have two men unaccounted for." Anakin explains.
"That's not good." Obi-Wan responded.
"No shit." I said in annoyance.
"Keep things quiet." He continued, ignoring my comment. "I'll stay with the Senators."
"Got it." Anakin replied as he lowered his wrist.
Artoo then let out a few beeps and began to roll away from us, with Geenine following quickly after.
"What's wrong?" I asked both droids.
We rounded a corner and as we both looked ahead, we saw a Clone trooper coming out of a dark corner of the cargo hold.
"Oh Redeye." Anakin began. "Where have you been? You've had us all worried."
Redeye didn't respond, and I began to inspect his movements…they were rather abnormal.
"Redeye?" I questioned.
He continued to move closer to us, but that's when I realized something was behind him. Anakin activated his lightsaber, and I had one of my vambrace's activated as well. Within a matter of moments, Redeye's body came at us, and both of us ducked as we watched his body fly overhead to hit a crate. As we stood back up, we noticed what the creature was that had him. A spider like droid crawls over the crate to face us and makes a loud screeching sound before rushing forward to attack us. Anakin acts quick and cuts off the front two limbs with his lightsaber. But just when I thought the droid was gone for good, it recovered quick and used two other claws it had and threw them at Anakin, which knocked him onto the ground. I quickly activate the flamethrower in my right vambrace and try to kill the droid that way, but I didn't have to for long, as Fox and Shock quickly came to my aid as they used their blasters to destroy the droid.
"Always a pleasure Princess." Shock replied and I rolled my eyes with a smirk.
My smirk however turned into a frown as I heard the same screeching noises earlier and I quickly turned around to see another droid, like the one earlier crawling up the ceiling.
"The lift!" Anakin shouted, but it was two late. The droid disappeared within seconds. Anakin then quickly activated his coms to inform Obi-Wan on the situation.
"Obi-Wan, there's assassin probes down here. One made it up the lift. Ro and I are going to try and hold the others here." Anakin explained.
"No promises." I murmured before glancing around the room. "There may be another one, we should split up and find it if there is one."
"Watch it!" Cody yelled making Anakin and I quickly turn around to see small, four-legged spider like droids, like the large one, coming out of the large holes on the top of the originally spider droid. Anakin reignites his lightsaber and I set my vambrace to stun. We all then start to fire at the droids, but it was difficult to kill them all as of how many there were.
"Agh!" Rex yelled in frustration. "They're everywhere!"
"Get behind me!" Anakin yelled as he continued to dismember each tiny droid with his lightsaber.
"I wish I'd brought my blaster!" I shout over to Anakin.
"Why can't you just be supportive for once!" He yelled back.
"You're asking for miracles!"
One of the clones that was with us, got completely taken away by the droids, as they got under his armor and killed him…thankfully it wasn't Fox or Shock. Both Artoo and Geenine were also fighting with us, as they were using discharging bolts that were electrified that could deactivate any droid that were near the two of them. Eventually, we had finally killed the last of the droids. I glanced down at my dress and noticed a small tear at the bottom.
"Zara is going to kill me." I murmured.
"Good work men." Anakin explained before glancing to me. "You good?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
I then glanced to the droids. "Thanks." Both droids beeped in response.
"Ugh." Rex began in disgust. "Assassin droid, how did that monster end up in the hold?"
"The question is, who smuggled it onboard?" I asked.
"We need to find the droid in charge." Anakin explains and I nodded in agreement. We searched around for a few minutes before eventually we found him.
"I'm looking for the droid that services the cargo bay." Anakin explains.
The droid abruptly stands up and walks over to a crate. "Yes sir. Are all those creatures dead?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out. You oversee the cargo manifest, correct?" I asked in frustration.
The droid taps a tablet it has. "Yes. I gave it right here."
"Well, where did they come from?" Anakin asked in a demanding tone.
"It is right here on the manifest." The droid explained as it walked over to Anakin and handed him the device.
Anakin quickly read it over but held it so that I could read it as well.
"For immediate delivery to Coruscant, one container marked medical supplies." I say and glance at Anakin who in response angrily glances at the droid.
"There is no name on this chart! There is no indication of who shipped it!"
"No sir." The droid responded. "Just the Senate stamp always accepted for transport here aboard the Coronet."
Anakin looked to me, and I crossed my arms in response.
"Well, seems we have a traitor among us." Anakin explains.
"The thing is, who is it?" I asked. "For once I don't have the answers."
"I'll tell Obi-Wan." He explained as he walked out of the cargo hold leaving me behind with the clones and the droids.
Within a few minutes, Anakin returned, and we resumed our original plan of finding the other large assassin droid. Anakin had his lightsaber activated, and I had both my vambraces activated as we walked through the cargo hold. The clones had their blasters ready as well.
"Anakin! Aurora! Tal Merrick is the traitor, and he's taken Satine hostage!" Obi-Wan's voice came through Anakin's coms.
My eyes widened. I never liked Merrick…he was always full of himself, but then again…that explains a lot.
"Copy that." Anakin replied. "But we've got problems of our own right now."
I staggered into one of the crates due to the fact of worrying about my mother.
"Focus Ro." Anakin explained, and I nodded before he activated his coms again. "Cody, Rex, Fox, have you found anything?"
"All quiet over here, sir." Cody explained.
However, within a few minutes, we heard a blaster fire, and the two of us raced towards where we heard it with both droids following us. As we around the corner, we see Cody, Rex, and Fox all trying to not get the small droids under their armor. Anakin cuts two of them in half, whereas Artoo uses his electricity to disarm the third.
Rex bent down to look at Artoo in the eye. "Thanks, little guy."
"If these are the small ones, where's the big one?" I asked in confusion.
Fox shrugged. "Haven't seen it.
Within seconds, the assassin droid appeared and slammed into Rex and Fox, which sent both flying backward. Both clones pushed the assassin droid back by kicking it, as the droid was over top of them trying to kill them with its large claws. Anakin threw his lightsaber at it, which cut half of the droid's limbs off thankfully, which allowed for Rex to climb on top of the droid and fired into the many holes with both of his blasters which allowed for the small droids to be destroyed as well. We then rushed out of the cargo hold and headed to the upper levels to meet up with Obi-Wan along with to ensure the safety of my mother, and to make sure that the escape pods were blocked in case Merrick tried to escape with my mother. We rounded the hallway to see Obi-Wan running down the hallway towards us.
"Did you find them?" He asked the two of us.
"No, but we stationed clones at every escape pod." Anakin explained.
"Merrick will try to signal his allies for help. We must find him." Obi-Wan explained as he broke out into a run.
Anakin also broke out into a run going after him. I started to run but during this entire time, my feet were starting to kill me.
"Screw it." I said before taking off my shoes and running after the two Jedi.
The three of us get into a lift once again to go up even further.
"This may not be the right time to ask this, but were you and Satine ever…?" Anakin began.
Obi-Wan snapped his head around. "I don't see how that has any bearing to the situation at hand."
I tilted my head to the side in confusion. What the hell were they talking about? Did I miss something?
As we got off the lift and walked around a corner, we hear three impacts against the ship's hull. My eyes widened as alarms began to go off as the clones that were assisting Anakin and I earlier run past us.
"We'll take care of this Obi-Wan." Anakin began as the two of us took off after the clones. "You? Go find your girlfriend."
"Right." Obi-Wan said in agreement. "No Anakin, she's not my…!"
"Girlfriend?" I questioned Anakin as we continued running after the clones.
"I'll tell you after this is all over." He explained.
I nodded. "Please do."
"Are you going to get your blasters?" He asked as we rounded another corner.
"I don't think I'll need them." I explained as we rounded a final corner before coming across battle droids in front of us.
My eyes widened. "I'm going to go get my blasters."
Anakin nodded with his eyes wide as well. "I don't blame you."
I ran back to my room where I found my blasters sitting by my suit and jetpack. I grabbed the blasters then glanced over the latter two.
"Next time." I said with a sigh before I opened the door to my room and ran back down the hall.
As I reached Anakin and the clones again, I saw they were still cutting down droids. I ran forward and activated my blasters and began firing at the droids. Anakin then used a wave of the force to knock out the last few droids. Within moments, all the droids were deactivated and or destroyed.
I tossed my vambraces and blasters to Fox. "Hold onto these and don't lose them."
He nodded. "Yes Princess."
I then started running down the hall.
"Ro! Where are you going?" Anakin asked in confusion.
"To find my mom!" I explained and he quickly ran after me as well.
We continued to run down corridors until we heard a negotiation going on between Merrick, my mother, and Obi-Wan.
"Stay back." Anakin explained and I nodded.
Within a few moments I heard a lightsaber activate, which made me rush forward to see Merrick dead on the floor with Anakin standing over him.
"Anakin." I heard Obi-Wan say.
"What?" He questions. "He was going to blow up the ship."
The clones then rushed past me and that's when I decided to walk forward, after they got dismissed by Skywalker.
"Aurora!" My mother said joyfully as she rushed towards me and engulfed me into a hug. "Are you alright?"
I nodded. "Yes mother. I'm better than ever."
My mother turned towards Anakin. "Thank you, for protecting my daughter."
I smirked and rolled my eyes at the shocked expression he had…if anything, I did a good job protecting him.
He nodded. "Anytime, Princess, allow me to escort you back to your quarters."
I nodded. "Of course."
I turned back to see my mother have a sigh of relief.
"You get one chance to say that you saved me…cause if anything I save your ass more." I said with a smirk.
"Thank you, seriously." Anakin explained.
"Always a pleasure Flyboy." I smirked.
He rolled his eyes, and I laughed in response. The rest of the trip to Coruscant was rather uneventful. Anakin told me what Obi-Wan told him about how he and my mother knew each other, which explains why he knows so much about Mandalore. Once we arrived on Coruscant, we were met with the Chancellor along with some of his guards.
"Duchess Satine, Princess Aurora." The Chancellor treated warmly, and he made me want to throw up, but I held back my emotions for the sake of my mother and all the inflicted trauma she experienced.
"Aurora, Zara, I'll meet you on the shuttle." My mother explained before walking back to Obi-Wan.
Zara gestured to both of them as we walked onto the shuttle that would take us directly to the Senate. "What's that all about?"
I smirked. "Trust me…it's a long story."
Her eyes widened and she smirked. "One I'll want to know?"
I nodded. "Oh yeah."
