Chapter 24
The Arena
The white-hot noon sun blazed high overhead. The air was still, dry, and hot. And that, along with the muted roar of the surrounding crowd, combined to make Obi-Wan quite miserable.
He found himself chained by his wrists to a tall stone pillar in the center of a sandy arena. The stands were filled with jeering Geonosians, eager for entertainment. Down on his level a few armed Geonosians patrolled the perimeter just in case something went wrong. High above the crowd was the VIP balcony where the leaders of the Separatist Movement would watch the impending spectacle. After all, it wasn't every day that one got to watch the public execution of a Jedi.
Sighing wearily, Obi-Wan sought peace through light meditation. He blocked out the rumblings from the crowd and the hot blinding sun as he reached for the cool calm of the Force. Soon he would be ready to face his fate, whatever it might be.
A strange ripple in the Force caught his attention and drew him away from his meditation. He opened his eyes and turned to see a shocking sight. Senator Padmé Amidala was approaching in a chariot. She was a prisoner and it seemed she would be joining him on the execution block.
Obi-Wan watched in silence as she was chained to the pillar to his left. For her part, she looked deeply embarrassed. He frowned and waited for the Geonosians to move away before speaking to her.
"Good afternoon Senator, what brings you out here?" Obi-Wan asked very dryly.
"It was my intent to help you, Obi-Wan, but it seems that I failed." She replied tensely. Though Obi-Wan noticed her voice sounded odd, like she had something hidden in her mouth. A hair pin, perhaps?
"I see," Obi-Wan muttered. "But what I don't see is my Padawan. I hope you didn't do anything terrible to him."
"We got separated. I don't know where he is." Padmé shrugged.
Obi-Wan sighed and was about to ask for more details when he was interrupted. Count Dooku and many of the Separatist leaders appeared on the balcony and the Count raised his arms for silence. When the Geonosians fell quiet, he began his little speech condemning Obi-Wan and Padmé. And then a Geonosian leader, a duke of some kind, ordered the execution to begin.
The great stone doors at the far end of the arena groaned open and two exotic creatures were driven out into the bright sunlight. The first was an Ackly, a massive crab-like saurian predator. The second was a slender toothy Nexu. Both were herded by shock poles towards the two of them chained to pillars.
To his left, Obi-Wan could see Padmé furiously picking at her shackles with the hidden hair pin. Obi-Wan had no such lock pick and instead immersed himself into the Force and let it guide his actions. As the two animals drew closer, Padmé got one hand free and she began to climb up her pillar. Obi-Wan waited.
The Ackly scuttled towards him, half-blind by the strong sun, hurting from the shock poles, and starving. It stabbed randomly at him and, after a few close calls, Obi-Wan managed to trick it into stabbing through his chain. Now free to move about, he led the screeching Ackly in a merry chase around the arena.
He heard Padmé yell out in pain and caught a glimpse of her perched on top of her pillar, bleeding from shallow claw marks across her back. Clenching his teeth, Obi-Wan carefully led the Ackly towards her in hopes that it would attack the now limping Nexu. He charged the Nexu and at the last minute darted to the side and the Ackly that was following him trampled the fragile Nexu under its sharp claws.
This took care of the Nexu, but the Ackly was still going strong. Obi-Wan ducked around the crumbling pillars, trying to lose or confuse it, but despite its blindness it kept with him. Padmé shimmed down to help him, and at some point he got a spear away from a Geonosian to use on the Ackly, but it kept coming.
And then they had a fortunate break. They tricked the Ackly into ramming headfirst into one of the pillars. Stunned, it sunk to the ground twitching but still alive. Obi-Wan sighed in relief as Padmé unlocked the remaining shackle. She was about to start work on Obi-Wan's restraints when Count Dooku began to speak again.
Surprisingly, the elderly Count was interrupted by a violet lightsaber blade near his throat. Master Mace Windu had arrived. Seconds later, hooded figures mixed in with the native Geonosian crowd revealed themselves to be Jedi Masters and Knights. However, Count Dooku didn't seem to be concerned.
When the arena doors groaned open again, Obi-Wan understood why. Destroyer droids rolled out of the shadows into the sand, uncurled, raised their shields, and began advancing. Behind them, ranks of battle droids and super battle droids marched out to begin their assault. Things had just gone from bad to worse.
Obi-Wan did his best to keep Padmé safe in the chaos. It helped that she picked up a fallen droid's blaster and was a good shot, but he was unarmed. And worse, his wrists were still bound together. He could Force-shove droids around, but that was all he was able to do.
Then things looked up for him. His old friend Siri swung by and paused long enough to cut free his hands before the flow of battle tore her away. With his hands free, he could now attack into two separate directions at once, though he was still unarmed. And then it got even better.
Vader, of all people, appeared next to him and passed him a spare lightsaber. Obi-Wan was shocked almost to the point of paralysis by this. This was an open battle, something he would never have imagined his anxious, paranoid charge would willingly participate in. But he was here in spite of the danger and it almost made Obi-Wan smile. Together, they mowed through the droids and kept the Senator safe.
Vader fought for focus as the battle raged. His fear of the Count and the adrenalin burning through his bloodstream tempted him to give in and draw on the Darkness. If he did, it would be easier to fight. But it would also clue in the rest of the Jedi to his true nature and they would turn on him in a heartbeat. So he clung to the Light and his fragile focus.
It wasn't enough. If the Jedi strike force had been fighting just native Geonosians, this battle would be over already. But they were fighting battle droids. And the droids just kept coming. No one is perfect, no one is invincible, not even Jedi. The longer the fighting went on, the wearier the Jedi became, and some began to fall.
In the end, only a tiny fraction of the Jedi remained, mostly pressed into a shrinking circle in the center of the arena. And then the droids stopped firing. A few scattered survivors were herded into the circle. Then Count Dooku stepped forward on his balcony to address them.
"Throw down your weapons and your lives will be spared!" The Count declared.
"We will not be hostages to be bartered with Dooku!" Master Windu shouted back defiantly.
"Then, I'm sorry old friend." Dooku sighed, managing to look sincerely remorseful.
The droids moved to start firing again when Padmé cried out, "look!"
Overhead several ships appeared, some kind of atmospheric attack craft. They rained fire down on the droids and landed nearby, opening up to disgorge mysterious men in white armor. Vader caught a brief glimpse of the tiny Master Yoda among them shouting out some kind of orders.
The cornered Jedi hurried into the transports while the white soldiers gave them cover fire. Vader hopped in right after his Master and the two of them helped the Senator aboard. And when all of them were in the gunships, they rose up into the air and flew out of the execution arena.
And they flew right into Hell. Outside the arena there was a full blown war. White armored soldiers went head-to-head with ranks upon ranks of droids. Laser fire was everywhere and the roar of rockets and the resulting explosions was deafening. Globular ships tried to escape into space, but tank fire sent several crashing back to the ground. Soldiers died and droids were destroyed. Vader just stared at it all open-mouthed.
"After centuries of peace, this is how it all ends." Padmé muttered sadly near his ear.
"Yeah," Vader muttered, feeling vaguely ill, "I guess so…"