Count Dooku loved his palace on Serenno. Hundreds of bodyguards and servants walked the halls protecting and taking orders from him without question or issue. It brought a devilish type of joy to be in charge of many, even if they were just droids.
Tyrannus was currently meditating in his office as usual when he felt it again. The feeling had been bothering the sith lord all week. The force was giving off a mood of failure in random intervals of the day. The worst part being he knew what it was about.
"They flew into it. The reports my spies stole had the whole crew labeled K.I.A. Why do you torment me?" he said to the force as if waiting for a response.
The Count decided the best course of option was to continue meditating. "The force will show me what I need to learn."
For the next thirty minutes, Dooku sat on the floor and concentrated letting the force take a hold of his mind. The voice started.
At first it was silent whispers of gargle to soft for anyone to here. Slowly but surely the voice grew higher in volume until they were familiar.
"Skywalker." he said angrily to himself.
Dooku went along with the vision trying to learn why the force was showing him a dead man.
Suddenly, his eyes were seeing a room. From what the sith could see, the area of the room was clean but nothing compared to a generals quarters. More of a regular house room if anything.
Most importantly though, Obi-Wan's pet was standing in the middle of the room.
"Dooku has no idea what's coming when we get back." Skywalker said raising his fist.
The Count opened his eyes gasping for a large breath of air. He ran his hand down the side of his head feeling the sweat sliding off. To say the least, it wasn't very often Count Dooku lost his composure.
He then took several deep breaths before returning to the calm collective attitude many of his friends and enemies know him for.
"You dare defy the fate I lead you to." he mumbled to himself. "You, your master, your padawan, and those lab creatures you consider people will pay."
The man was extremely frustrated. As the Clone Wars raged on, Anakin and his jedi friends remained a thorn in his side. He was by far one of the most successful generals in the war winning decisive battles all over the galaxy for The Republic. For The Separatists to have a chance at winning, that boy needed to die.
But there was still many questions unanswered. Where was Skywalker? How did he survive? How was he going to get to him?
"Well my young friend, they do say revenge is a dish best served cold. So enjoy the time you have left alive because you will see death even if I have to deal the final blow.
(X)
Game Over
"Wow, Hardcase couldn't even get passed stage one!" laughed Kix.
The disgruntled clone threw the controller on the couch. "Whatever, you didn't tell me the red ghost was faster than the other ones. I would have strategized for that."
"Cause we all know you strategize our battles constantly." Jesse said sarcastically while pouring another cup of coffee. He didn't wanna admit it, but he was starting to get addicted to the stuff. It was definitely tastier than any of the ration handouts on the Republic had.
The connecting door opened allowing the jedi, senator, and astromech to migrate to the clones area.
"Good morning generals." Rex saluted.
"At ease and goodmorning to you all." Anakin said to the group. "Just came in to make sure everybody knows their job for today."
"If they were paying attention yesterday, they should know their orders, right?" Rex said loudly.
"Yes sir!" the clones responded in unison.
"Good to know." Obi-Wan grinned. "Just make sure to get to your jobs on time. May the force be with you all. Lord knows we need it.
(X)
Young Midoriya kept pace with his two best friends on the way to school even though his mind was face down in a ditch.
"I would much rather take a trip London than Paris." Uraraka answered Tenya.
"But Paris has way better weather than cloudy old London. That alone makes it the right choice." he argued back.
"What about you Midoriya? Can you end this tiebreaker?" Uraraka said.
The green haired boy looked down at his feet as if he were watching out for a landmine, not listening to his friends conversation.
"Deku?" Uraraka said again.
Midoriya looked up with embarrassment in his eyes. "Ahhhhhh! Sorry Uraraka. I wasn't paying attention."
Tenya let out a groan, "I know your're still thinking about the test yesterday, acting disgruntled and sad about it will get you nowhere."
Midoriya looked up at Iida into his eyes, "That's easy to say. You passed after all."
The blue haired boyboy pressed his glasses up and kept walking with his friends. "Admittedly I would be upset if I failed too, but you need to move past it. One test will not decide your fate ten years from now. Realise that everything will be fine if you just keep calm and train smarter."
"Thanks for the pep talk." Midoriya said.
"Your power did get you into U.A. so obviously they saw potential in you. I can see why. If you can control that power, you'll be unstoppable." Uraraka said.
The three arrived at the front of the school walking down the main pathway when Uraraka's wandering eyes caught something orange on the other side of across the treeline.
In a patch of grass, Ahsoka meditated in happy bliss.
"Ahsoka! How are you?!" Uraraka yelled walking over.
This spooked the young jedi a little causing her to break concentration. She turned around to see her classmates. "Hey guys."
"What are you doing back here?" Midoriya asked.
"Just a little bit of meditating. It helps me stay concentrated and calm."
"Mind if we join you?" Tenya asked.
The three students sat in a circle with Ahsoka, copying the way she sat and closed her eyes. It was peaceful to say the least until the bell rang alerting them class started in five minutes.
"New day, new information to learn." Tenya happily said.
"And just like Echo, I've found another buff nerd." Ahsoka thought to herself.
(X)
Anakin never saw himself teaching kids or teenagers as a job. That was until he met Ahsoka Tano, the padawan learner who would assist him in hundreds of battles and skirmishes all to become a better jedi. The difference to now was Ahsoka was one person, this was a room packed with students he could see from his view in the doorway.
"Nervous general?" Kix said behind him.
"A little. I'm hoping I don't get overwhelmed in there with all those kids."
"I think you'll do great sir, without a doubt." Kix replied. "Anyway, I need to head towards the nurses station. Good luck."
"You too." He said feeling a little more confident. The clone then walked away and out of sight to meet his new boss.
The jedi hadn't felt this way since before the accident. Everyone on his team was out and about doing something productive. It didn't go towards the war effort, but it could take his mind off of it.
Anakin walked into the support room with R2-D2 close behind. Both caught the attention of the students who were sitting talking quietly amongst themselves.
The teacher introduced himself to the jedi. "You must be Anakin Skywalker. My name is Higari Maijima, or the evacuation hero known as Power Loader. Just refer to me as the latter."
"Great to make your acquaintance." he said back.
The class engineer wore a piece of a construction vehicle over his head like a helmet, blue pants. special gloves, and no shirt. His face could hardly be seen but the flowing red hair was out in the open for all to gaze upon.
"Go ahead and introduce yourself to the class." Power Loader said.
Anakin, as well as R2, turned to face the students, "Hello, I am Anakin Skywalker if you don't already know. I'll be assisting your teacher in this workshop from the time being. Yes I was on the news several days ago for a test set up by All Might but I dont want to waste time going into detail about it please. Next to me is my friend R2-D2. Why don't you say hi little buddy."
"beep bloop beep." the droid said immediately impressing the students. The robot their eyes layed upon was incredible looking to watch respond to the order in an almost human like mannerism.
"Any questions?" Anakin asked the class.
One boy raised his hand. "So what's your hero name? It can't be what you said.
"Actually that is my hero name." he said. "I'm a big believer that if I save someone, they deserve to know who really did it. Not some persona I made for myself.
The class was split by this answer with half thinking that it was stupid and the other half understanding why that would be a personal preference. Gotta keep heroes humanized and not looked at like some sort of gods.
Anakin glanced over the room noticing a pink haired girl with an outstretched arm almost like she was trying to grab the ceiling. "Yes?" he said pointing at her.
"Is that a robotic arm? If so how did you get it and what is inside of the shell?" she asked excitedly.
This brought back the distasteful memory of loosing his arm to dooku in his first real duel on Geonosis. Thank the order that Yoda came in the knick of time to save him and his master. Still though, the missing arm reminded him of his failures and disliking toward the sith lord. But the encounter did help him become a more focused and stronger jedi. Of course, he had to improvise his story now.
"Yes, sometimes a villain will destroy what's important to you, but it can make you stronger." he said looking at the arm after giving his shady and mysterious answer. "The arm itself has electrostatic fingertips that are hooked by impulse lines to an interface module inside the shell. In simple terms, I can still feel with it."
The pink haired girl was absolutely ecstatic at what she was hearing him say. "That's incredible! Only the brightest minds in the world have built something this complicated, and your walking around with it like it's car keys! Did you make it?"
"This version of it, yes." Anakin said a little worried the young lady was going to have a heart attack. "What's your name?"
"Mei Hatsume. Please teach me your ways." she replied almost foaming at the mouth ready to drop everything to learn how to build a fully functional robotic arm.
Skywalker grinned at R2, "I think I have a favorite student already."
(X)
Unsurprisingly later in the day, class 1-A was sent for some more training, but in the forest biome this time. Most students had a goal in mind. For example, Tsuyu wanted to work on her reaction time. With this, she could make up in speed what she lacked in strength. Others were seeking more though. The loud mouthed Bakugou was just trying to prove that he could show up everyone in the class, including the powerful Todoroki. Midoriya on the other hand was looking for redemption after yesterday's mistakes.
"Today's instructor will be here soon." Aizawa said walking off without a care in the world. "Just stay here and he will come." Before they knew, it Eraserhead was gone, probably still being depressed and angry.
"Any ideas what were here for?" Sero said out loud to no one in particular.
"Whatever the reason, I don't like being here. The mud and dirt is going to do a number on my cape." Aoyama complained.
"Oh wouldn't that be a shameful sight." someone said.
The voice that rang out was unrecognizable to the students yet comforting, naturally sounding safe.
"Look! Up in the tree!" Mina shouted pointing to a man on a tree limb.
The bearded robed figure eyed the students as he hoped a good fifty feet to the ground, landing easily on his feet. "Hello There." announcing his presence. "My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, your teacher for today. Let me introduce you to my associates." the man reached for some sort of communicator. "Rex, are you all done setting up our lesson?"
"Yes we are sir."
"Perfect. Now come on out and meet your students."
A minute later Jesse, Hardcase, and Rex emerged from the forest for all to see.
"Wait a minute!" Midoriya shouted pointing at the captain, "You were the guy we saw beat up Midnight a few days ago."
Rex took a step back, a little shocked by the kids reaction. He was not used to being noticed by really anyone. To the common civilian, he was just a faceless instrument in the Republic's war.
"It's rude to point kid." Jesse said in a dead serious tone.
Midoriya swiftly put his hand behind his head and scratched it, "Sorry! My bad! I didn't mean to insult you guys."
"Who are you guys?" Sato asked from the back of the group."
"Teachers." the captain said. "My name is Rex, one of your new bosses, the one to my left is Hardcase and to my right is Jesse. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
"Not to be impolite, but why do you all have armor on? Are you men part of a poilce force?" Tokoyami questioned.
"These are our team uniforms. Rights guys." Rex said lying and hinting towards his two men who immediately nodded their heads.
"Now that were through with introductions, we would like to explain your assignment."Obi-Wan said directing everyone to face the tree line. "Your goal is to get to the other side of the woods without getting snagged or caught by any traps my friends have placed. The one to make it in the shortest amount of time wins."
"Well this is just to easy." Bakugou said clapping his hands together igniting a couple of sparks. "I think it'll just prove it even more that I'm the top student in this class. Maybe even the whole school."
"Well there is one insignificant rule." Kenobi explained raising his finger indicating he wasn't done speaking yet. "You are not to use your quirks under any circumstances. This exercise is to help train your senses and learn not to rely solely on your abilities."
Some of the students were a little blindsided by the assignment. They came to this school to learn how to become heroes with their quirks, and now they want this out of them?
Rex stepped in to speak. "All of you will start at the same time. If you make it across, you pass. If we need to cut you down out of a tree... well you know the answer already."
The class held on to every word the intimidating armored man spoke. While Obi-Wan looked more approachable, the helmeted men were not. At the least it made Class 1-A nervous to be around such mysterious people.
"Does everyone understand?!" Rex shouted.
"Yes sir!" the students shouted back.
"Good. You all have fifteen minutes. Jesse, get the timer set."
"Ready... set... go!" he said pressing the button and starting the countdown. With that, the students ran off into different sections of the woods, unsure of what they were to face.
The first to be captured was Mina after falling into a hole covered by leaves.
"A little help?!" she screamed up towards the sky.
A moment later Kenobi popped his head over the side smiling at the trapped girl. "I presume you didn't watch your step?"
"Maybe." she said pouting to herself, disappointed. It had been a week into the school year and she hadn't done anything to stand out. By comparison, her quirk was weak when measured against Todoroki, Bakugou, Tokoyami, and Midoriya even though he breaks himself everytime it's used.
Obi-Wan hoped in and out quickly walking with the girl back towards the tree line. "I know how you feel right now."
"Not to be disrespectful, but I don't think you do." Mina replied. She wanted to be great like all the others but it wasn't working. The feeling created an uneasy tension in her heart the more she thought about it. "Why couldn't I have watched where I stepped. It was so obvious!"
"You may have just met me but I already know the emotions your balling up within. Perhaps the feeling of failure, frustration, and dissatisfaction are a few." Obi-Wan said.
Mina looked up at the robed man in a new, understandable light. He was right about all those things but it didn't make her feel any better.
"Your not the only one to taste failure. Lord knows we all have at one point or another." he said thinking back to a certain master he was unable to save in time. "But what matters that you can get up and bounce back."
Mina gave a small smile to the bearded man. Sure it sounded like it came off of an energy drink commercial, but he meant it. She thanked him and walked off a little less upset while Kenobi contemplated if he said the right things.
"I trained Anakin myself so by default this shouldn't be as hard. Right?"
At the same time near the quarter way point, Jiro was strung upside down dangling from a tree. She had stepped in the trap without a second thought and was starting to feel nauseous. All of the sudden, she heard a laugh coming from behind a bush. Hardcase stepped out with his left hand holding his side in place.
"How's the view?" he continued to giggle.
"Great." she said angry that her own teacher would laugh at her failure.
The clone took out a knife and began cutting the rope. "I'm not going to sugar coat it kid. You should have done better. But it's not like one screw up is setting you back all the way."
"How would you know that?" Jiro asked. "I'm going to the number one hero school in Japan. As far as I know, being perfect is all that matters."
Suddenly Kyoka started falling back towards Earth before Hardcase caught her. "Admittedly, I was never an angel." Hardcase replied. The trooper was a troublesome one when it came to executing orders and complying to a superior officers power. "But I turned out fine, and so will you with more practice."
Meanwhile, Ahsoka took an early lead hopping through the forest without much trouble. Not to far back was Bakugou and Iida who both seemed to be playing the challenge smart, or at least lucky. The traps were all to familiar for her as she had seen countless times before which were made by clones and droids alike. The Jedi were crazy letting teens fight on the battlefield, but it was paying off.
The padawan could here the hard breathes of Bakugou scissoring the diatance between them catching up to her. His adrenaline rush kicked in even more seeing his new class rival grow keeping a slower pace signaling that he was one step closer to taking the top spot. Iida on the other hand wasn't speeding up for fear of running into a trap. Using basic logic, he kept Bakugou just far enough to where if he fell into a trap the speedster would have enough time to avoid it. Sure the goal was to be first, but it was to also pace ones self and not be foolish.
After seven minutes, Sero, Mineta, and Kota were also captured by the clones trap placement. At this point, everyone was at least three-quaters the way through. Midoriya ran through the forest cautius with each stepdodging left, right, up, and down to avoid collision with failure.
"Jeez! How many of these things did they put down!?"
Suddenly he could make out a blue haired boy farther ahead of him. It was Iida.
"I know he can't use his quirk but Iida is still a fast runner. I have to be near the top!" Midoriya gleamed with happiness. "I'll make you proud All Might!
At the finish line, which was placed at the tree line, Obi-Wan and Rex waited for the competitors to come through.
"Think ours will be first?" Rex nudged.
"I sincerely think she will but we can't play favorites. We are teachers to all these students equally." Kenobi said.
"Hopefully not teachers for long. Speaking of which, is Anakin going to end up repairing the ship on his own?" Rex asked.
"It would take an excruciating amount of time but yes. He built a podracer and C-3P0 before ten so I don't see why not. But we might not have the parts for the job."
Meanwhile, Bakugou continued closing the gap with Ahsoka falling in only a few steps behind.
"I'm still the top dog here! Now get out of my way!" he shouted in a vicious tone.
The lash out of anger surprised the padawan but she kept on running with the treeline in view.
With a final boost of energy, Bakugou passed the girl who then... turned right?
Katsuki turned around and noticed the trip wire. The sunlight hitting the forest floor made it shine and glitter back at him in a dastardly way. He was moving so fast that he didn't have enough time to jump or stop himself from mowing it over. What he did have time though was to let his mind race, searching for the right word to describe his mistake.
"SHIT!!!!!!"
The wire broke but strangely, nothing happened... for a second.
"Fwoosh!" a flash bang went off causing the boy to drop in blinding, bloodcurdling, screaming rage.
While Bakugou was down for the time being, Iida and Midoriya ran passed him with determination to catch Ahsoka. Sadly for them, it did not happen for she finished the race by the time they got to the clearing. The two sprinted for second place with Iida winning because of his higher amounts of stamina enabling him to beat out All Might's protege.
"Amazing job Ahsoka. How did you do that so quick?" a panting Midoriya asked.
"Luck I guess." said Ahsoka.
"Yeah great answer there genius." her mind said to herself. "Want to sound anymore suspicious giving non-specific answers?"
It didn't take long for the other survivors to show up. In the last leg of the race Denki along with Bakugou were eliminated giving the class a thirteen out of twenty pass rate.
"Settle down class." Kenobi said.
The students heads turned and looked at him attentively.
"There is of course room for improvement by all of you in this exercise, but it wasn't terrible for the first time." Obi-Wan said.
Rex once again stepped into speak. "Yes some of you failed, but as a team we will improve until all can make it through.
"How is this suppose to help us be heroes?" Kirishima asked. "Plus why couldn't we have just used our quirks? Would have made things a lot easier."
"Precisely my point young one. A man once said harder times build stronger men. The lesson emulating through the challenge was not to rely on your quirks all the time." Obi-Wan explained.
The students seemed satisfied and a little impressed by the lesson nodded their heads in approval. This made the jedi smile thinking he was gaining trust with the new students. "How about now, one at a time, introduce yourself to me and show off your quirk. If I am going to be teaching I must learn names and capabilities of you all.
As everyone did this, a certain explosive student stood off to the side staring intently at Ahsoka once again. At this point, the padawan had had enough and walked over to where he stood.
"Listen, I don't know what I did to upset you but I would rather be friends than enemies." she said in a calming voice.
"Shut up." he responded in a quiet whispers.
"Excuse me?" Ahsoka said not a one-hundred percent sure what he mumbled.
"Just because you beat me here doesn't mean I can't beat you anywhere else. I'll prove to you why I'm going to be the number one hero and you won't!"
And with that, he walked away leaving a dumbfound padawan wondering how messed up his childhood must have been. "Lucky the jedi code prevents me from punching you in the back of the head when your not looking."
(X)
The yellow and white armored clone hologram stood facing all the jedi masters as they listen to what the fleet had found.
"I'm sorry. But after tracking them to the system and locating the jump out of hyperspace, we can only assume the crew were sucked into the black hole." Cody stated.
"No escape pods there was?" Yoda asked with a frown on his face, staring towards the ground fiddling with his wooden cane.
"I'm sorry sir we found nothing left in the area. We also don't know the cause of the accident, but I think it's easy to assume it was the Separatists." Cody replied.
The jedi in the room on Coruscant stared at each other unable to input anything into the matter. What were they to say? The prophecy that Anakin would destroy the Sith was now out the window and dead in the streets.
"No further investigation is needed Commander. Tell the fleet to leave the system. We can only mourn the ones we have lost." Mace Windu ordered.
Cody didn't say anything for a second standing in utter shock of the command. His jedi and clone friends he had bonded with through the war were gone like a star in the sky when sunrise hits. He couldn't stand to leave, but orders were orders.
"Yes sir." is all he replied before ending the transmission.
Shaak Ti was the first to break the silence. "Even if we find who is responsible for this, it won't bring our friends back."
"We shouldn't let these untimely deaths distract us from the war. The Confederacy of Independent System is still our main concern and will be for a long time." Mace stated
"You don't think there is any chance of them being alive, do you?" Eeth Koth asked with a little resentment towards Windu's way of thinking.
"The ships signal was lost over the event horizon. Meaning there was no way they were captured by anyone but the black hole. After that we lost contact." Mace said.
"Nothing we can do." Yoda spoke up. "This doesn't happen again, make sure we must."
One by one the jedi left with only the thought of one thing, war. The war was the priority, not the jedi lost in action.
Remember the fallen but continue the war.
(X)
"We're ready completely for tommorow?" he said continuing to scratch his face.
"Yes. The men, women, and the nomu will be ready for your orders to go in and kill him." the black mist replied.
"Perfect... wait! What about the soldiers? Did those engineers finish the job." he asked.
The mist would have smiled if he could. "They're ready. Hopefully they'll make quick work of those students."
"Then everything truly is perfect. Master will be happy tommorow knowing I have killed the symbol of everything that's wrong with this world!"
(X)
Hey guys! Sorry this took so long to make. The past few weeks have been me taking finals to finish the school year, getting and working a new job, and trying to keep a bit of a social life. Just know I'm not going to give up on this story. I'm seeing this through to the end.
Leave a review if you want and see y'all next time!