Chapter 4: The Battle for Geonosis

"You understand your orders, Kothar?" Windu had triple-checked one last time before heading through the tunnel to the balcony where Count Dooku stood.

"Yes, Master, I understand," Kothar had nodded. "Go already, I'll take care of it!"

Mace ignited his lightsaber, the blade slicing through the air right in front of Jango Fett's face. The bounty hunter was momentarily startled, but kept his cool. Count Dooku turned around slowly.

"Master Windu," he said, nodding his head slightly. "How pleasant of you to join us."

"This party's over," Mace said, his face completely placid.

All throughout the arena, the Jedi who had secretly maneuvered into position threw off their cloaks and ignited their lightsabers, causing the creatures sitting in the stands to scatter.

In the pit, Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan, astride the horned beast that had been released to kill them, looked around in awe, seeing the flying aliens scatter from the sudden squad of Jedi now surrounding the arena.

"Brave," Count Dooku said, nodding slightly again. "But foolish, my old Jedi friend. You're impossibly outnumbered."

Mace grinned slightly. "I don't think so," he said quietly, in a menacing voice few had ever heard him use before.

"We'll see," Count Dooku nodded in acceptance. The sound of marching feet came from through the tunnel, and Mace turned toward the sound. Four elite droids marched down the tunnel, unfolding the blasters from their metal wrists, and fired at the Jedi veteran. Mace deflected the shots, his lightsaber a blur of purple energy. Jango, in the meantime, had put on his helmet, and advanced towards Mace, activating a flamethrower on his suit attached to his wrist, blasting at the Jedi.

Mace jumped backward over the edge of the balcony, deflecting the shots the droids fired at him in mid-air. He landed on both feet in the arena, throwing off his now smoldering cloak. One of the droids had managed to blast a hole through it.

As more of the creatures in the stands scattered away by land and air, Mace turned around to see a large squad of battle droids running towards him, blaster rifles in their hands. Behind him, the squad of Jedi ran across the arena to meet the incoming droids.

"Where in the hell is my Padawan?" Mace raged silently.

As if on cue, a loud scream erupted from somewhere in the stands. "Yeeaaaahaw!" Mace looked where the voice had come from to see one of the flying aliens flying crazily around, a figure attached to its insectoid legs. It flew above the arena, then there was a flash of light from the figure attached to it. The insectoid screamed, then plummeted to the ground, landing right between the oncoming Jedi and the charging droids. Both parties stopped as the dust from the impact cleared.

Standing over top of the very dead insectoid was a young human, dressed in an all-white Jedi cloak. In his hands were two Starlight E-class blaster pistols, normally standard issue as a sidearm for armed troops. The boy was fairly tall, with flaming red hair that fell to his shoulders, with the standard small Padawan braid slung behind his ear, and brilliant green eyes. He leveled his twin blasters and shot off the heads of the two nearest droids.

This sudden action revived the combat that was about to begin. Both sides moved forward again, and clashed, Jedi against droid.

Mace ran up next to the young man, now blasting away at the droids charging towards him, dodging blaster shots left and right.

"A little late, don't you think?" Mace shouted over the clamor of battle, slashing a charging droid in half.

"Please, Master, I was trying to be dramatic," Kothar replied. "I thought you had a flair for the dramatic as well, considering your entrance."

"You have your orders, they haven't changed," Mace shouted back. "Arm Obi-Wan and Anakin, and defend the Senator. Get to it!" With that, the Jedi Master charged into the throng of droids as 3 more phalanxes of droids appeared from the arena gates.

Shaking his head, Kothar dashed over to where the three were still atop the horned beast. 5 droids stepped in between him and his objective. "Never ever get in the way of a Jedi," Kothar muttered to himself. Still running, he launched himself into the air, using the Force to will his body over the droids. He spun his body so he was looking down on the droids, and fired five shots. After he had landed and reached the pit beast, the five droids fell down, the places where their heads had been smoking in the dust.

Kothar skidded to a halt in front of the beast, startling it. Anakin pulled back on his makeshift reins to steady the beast.

"Hey guys," Kothar said cheerily. "Jedi to the rescue!" He willed the two lightsabers his Master had given off of his belt and flew them with the Force towards the two mounted Jedi. Anakin and Obi-Wan reached out to grab the weapons, but Kothar halted the motion of the lightsabers. Caught off guard, both Anakin and Obi-Wan fell off the beast, leaving Padme alone and helpless on the animal. Kothar chuckled cheekily, but his grin faded when the beast charged straight at him, its three horns viciously getting closer. Once again, he launched himself into the air, this time not willing himself upward, but backward. The effect was that as the beast charged past where he had been, he fell down right on top of it. He grabbed Padme around the waist, then jumped off the beast once more, willing himself back to the two Jedi, who by now had jumped up and grabbed their lightsabers. Just as he was about to land, He willed himself up slightly, so that he seemed to gently float down to the ground. He let go of Padme's waist.

"Fear not, princess," he said turned to look at her for the first time. "The Jedi are...whoa..."

He was mesmerized. Standing very close to him was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He was seventeen. He had just saved her life. He did what any teenager would do. He kissed her. On the lips.

"Hey!" Anakin yelled in utter fury. The apprentice ran over to them, tackling Kothar. "Just who the hell do you think you are?"

"Um, I'm a Jedi," Kothar said, not particularly startled by Anakin's sudden attack. "And I'd appreciate it if you get off me."

Anakin ignited his lightsaber and held it above Kothar's throat. "I don't think so," he snarled. Inside him, the dark side that had been growing ever since his return to Coruscant swelled even larger. He wanted to swing that lightsaber ever so slightly, killing his fellow Jedi.

"Fine, then," Kothar sighed. He pushed upward with his mind, the Force following his command obediently. Anakin flew into the air, flailing his arms wildly. Kothar rolled backward over his right shoulder, landing on his feet, blasters in hand. "Make yourself useful, and blow up some droids," he shouted at the flailing figure hovering 20 feet above him. He willed the Padawan forward and down, divebombing Anakin into yet another squad of approaching droids.

Padme was still standing in shock. Obi-Wan had to agree with her.

Kothar winked at the princess, nodded at the Jedi Master, then turned and ran towards an oncoming group of Elite droids.

"Who the hell is that?" Padme asked Obi-Wan in utter shock.

"An old acquaintance of mine," Obi-Wan said quietly. This is what he had grown into.

Kothar grinned to himself as he charged the group of oncoming droids, his hands acting independently of his mind, shooting down droids left and right. "She's really pretty," he thought to himself as a blaster shot grazed his cheek, drawing blood. He was in the midst of combat, but his mind was somewhere else entirely. "She was really really pretty..." Kothar shot off the blaster arm of one of the Elites, which promptly turned and fled, now useless.

After Anakin had annihilated the droids Kothar had dropped him on, Anakin spotted the young Jedi dodging and weaving through the group of Elites, blasters blazing.

"I'm going to kill him for that," Anakin said, readying his lightsaber. He walked slowly toward the young man, but Obi-Wan stepped in front of him.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouted over the clamor of the battle. "Take care of your grudge later! Right now we have more pressing matters!" His Padawan didn't seem to listen. As Anakin grew closer, Obi-Wan saw his eyes. His pupils had turned a vivid, demonic red, and his pupils were yellow.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouted again, grabbing his Padawan by the shoulders and shaking him. Anakin seemed to come out of his trance. "Fight droids now, fight Jedi later!" Obi-Wan said.

"Yes, master," Anakin replied, absent-mindedly, still gazing at the Jedi who had now moved on to a group of regular battle droids. Anakin did an about face and charged straight towards an oncoming squad of Droidekas.

Obi-Wan watched his apprentice for a moment, then turned to find a group of droids of his own to fight.

"She was really pretty..." Kothar thought yet again, shooting the head off of a battle droid which had a strange, thick, body, not at all like the skeletal battle droids. But Kothar didn't notice. C-3PO's body fell over, settling in the dust of the arena sand. A few moments later, R2-D2 arrived on the scene, dragging the correct head behind him, which was chattering incessantly, making bad puns and such.

"She was really really pretty..." Kothar thought. Unfortunately, this thought cost him, and for the first time in his life, Kothar was shot by a blaster bolt dead on. The bolt smashed into his left shoulder, burning straight through his skin and exiting the back of his body. Kothar screamed in agony, dropping the blaster in his left hand. He looked around and saw the droid which had shot him, which was cackling in a crackly, mechanical droid voice.

"Piece of shit," Kothar cursed, leveling his right hand blaster and drawing a bead on the droid. He fired, and kept firing at the broken and smoking body of the droid until he felt a little better. Now he had to concentrate.

"Okay, now I'm irritated," Kothar growled. Painfully, he grabbed his dropped blaster, and leveled the guns at a nearby Droideka, its shield raised and blasters firing. The two lightsabers strapped to his belt, attached at the back of his waist, flew out from their concealment, igniting, generating beams of deadly energy, one purple, one green. The blades deflected the blaster shots, hovering in circles around the Jedi and twisting and turning to block the bolts of energy. Kothar narrowed his eyes, and concentrated on the droid. He blinked once, and willed the Force to do his bidding, as it had done so many times before. When he opened his eyes from the blink, the Droideka was completely dismantled, each separate gear and computer chip hovering where there had once been a whole droid. Kothar grinned and turned towards the next group, a deadly fire in his eyes, the twin lightsabers dancing around him, his blasters aimed straight for the enemy.

Ten minutes later, a score of Jedi remained alive in the arena and more were falling to the droid blasters. Count Dooku looked down on the carnage in satisfaction. He flicked a finger towards the small ring of Jedi, and the droids about to annihilate them ceased fire.

"Master Windu," Dooku called down to the Jedi. "You have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order."

As he spoke, several Jedi who had been cut off from the main group were led back to the small circle by armed insectoids. Mace looked around at the small group of Jedi left. His apprentice was not among them. He looked back up at Count Dooku.

"Now it is finished." Dooku said. "Surrender, and your lives will be spared."

Mace was enraged, first by the apparent fall of his Padawan, and now the offer of "surrender or die."

"We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku!" he shouted angrily at the Sith Lord.

"Then..." Count Dooku said, and bowed his head as if in sorrow. "I'm sorry, old friend."

The droids surrounding the Jedi once again leveled their weapons at them.

"Psh, its only a few hundred droids," called a voice from behind Count Dooku. The Sith Lord turned to see a young Padawan standing before him, his brilliant green eyes staring cheerfully at him, blasters aiming for his heart. "Nothing Master Windu and I can't handle." He looked past the Count to the pit below. "Right, Master?" he shouted, grinning.

In the pit, Mace shook his head. That damn apprentice of his was going to get himself killed!

The Elite droids that had been guarding Dooku turned and leveled their blasters at his head, firing immediately. The twin lightsabers flew out and ignited again, deflecting the shots back onto their sources. The blasts knocked both droids down. The lightsabers began orbiting around the young Jedi. "Now, back off with the droids, or die. How's that sound for bartering?" The young man said, still grinning like a madman. "Well, Count?"

Before anyone could do anything more than that, below in the pit, Padme shouted "Look up!"

Descending from the sky, several dropships lowered down to just above the ground. Out of the open doors jumped shock troopers dressed in white armor, with massive blaster rifles leveled at the droids. While several groups of soldiers unloaded from the dropships, firing as soon as they hit the landing zone, other ships flew over the droids, blasting them with lasers. Kothar looked up at a ship that flew by the balcony, and saw Master Yoda standing in the midst of several more soldiers.

Unfortunately, a moment was all Count Dooku needed to shove Kothar back against the stone wall of the tunnel with the Force. The young Jedi was knocked out immediately, his head smashing against the solid rock. Count Dooku stepped over his motionless body and walked into the darkness of the tunnel.

Yoda looked down on the battle that had just reignited with their entrance, the ring of Jedi deflecting blasters from droids while the clones pressed forward with their rifles.

"Around the survivors, a perimeter create," Yoda said to the nearby commander. The clone nodded, and turned to speak to the pilot, who in turn spoke into the communicator in the ship's dashboard, transmitting the orders to the troops on and above ground.

The dropships that had already deposited troops set down in between the droids and the ring of Jedi, giving the survivors a chance to clamber onto the ships to be carried to safety. When all the Jedi had been loaded up, the clones returned to the nearest dropship and took off. Mace looked around at the maybe a dozen surviving Jedi. Kothar, he noticed was not among them.