Chapter 5

Present Day

Aurora's POV

"For the record this is the dumbest idea I've ever heard off!" I shouted over the walkers firing at the droids that had attacked us as soon as we landed on the ship, but I doubt anyone heard me.

As soon as we landed on the ship, we were attacked by droids. Thankfully, with not only the walker's fire power, the clones, Anakin, and Ahsoka, we were able to overcome their attacks with quite ease. They didn't let me fight at all unfortunately…saying that I was a last resort if they needed the extra help. If I was a last resort to them, then why did they bring me?

As soon as Artoo opened the hatch to get into the ship, we all jumped down it, and once we landed, we started heading towards the bridge. We walked down the hallway, and Artoo activated the system that opened the hatch to the bridge which of course was filled with droids. The clones, Anakin, and Ahsoka all began to dismantle and attack them as Artoo, and I took our sweet time walking (or in his case rolling) in.

"Sorry for calling you stupid earlier…you remind me of my own Astromech…she'd like you." I said with a small smile that he couldn't see as I had my helmet on.

Artoo beeped in response.

"I accept your apology, to be honest though, I didn't think this plan would work." I explained and he moaned in response making me laugh.

"Don't shoot!" One of the droids shouted. "I'm not the commander. he's the commander!"

The droid pointed to another droid who was standing to its right, and one of the clones fired at it, killing it.

"Guess I'm the commander now." The droid sighed and was immediately shot by the same trooper.

"Artoo," Anakin began. "See if you can find Master Ropal."

Artoo beeped in response, rolled forward, and tapped into the security footage of the bridge. Sure enough a hologram of Bane appeared.

"One authentic Jedi holocron and the memory crystal I was after." Bane spoke.

The hologram then ended.

"Oh no." Ahsoka said with fear. "He has both pieces now."

"Rex, send a squad, lock down the hangar bay and destroy all the escape pods. No one gets off this ship!" Anakin ordered.

Rex nodded. "Yes sir!"

"Artoo, you have to find Master Ropal." Ahsoka ordered. "Hurry!"

Just before Artoo beeped in response a loud bang occurred and the entire ship shook. All of us lost our balance, but quickly recovered.

"What was that?" Rex asked in confusion.

Just then Admiral Yularen came over the coms:

"General Skywalker, one of the engines on that frigate has exploded. I caution you to avoid the aft section."

"How much damage is there?" Anakin asked.

"I suggest immediate evacuation." The admiral responded.

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Not until we get what we came for."

He closed his coms and looked to me. "Do you have any idea where Master Ropal would be?"

I started walking off the bridge. "Probably where they keep most prisoners…but then again…if you all used your heads, I wouldn't have to tell you that."

Eventually, we all made it down to the prisoner cells, and upon Ahsoka's reaction…we all knew the result.

"Master, I found him!" She said with deep regret.

Anakin and I walked up to the cell and saw the man lying on the floor. I walked into the cell, pulled out a vital scanner, and scanned his body.

"No vital signs…he's dead." I confirmed with a nod.

"Rex, have some men take Master Ropal back to the Resolute." Anakin instructed.

"We might not be able to find the holocron in time, Master." Ahsoka said with sorrow. "But if it's destroyed with the ship, Nute Gunray won't get it either."

"Maybe," Anakin said in agreement. "But I'd rather return it to the library personally."

"I hate to agree with him on this." I said with annoyance. "But I do. I am not leaving until we get that holocron…I don't care if I must go down with this stupid ship."

Ahsoka frowned at both of our responses. I guess she prefers well-being over finishing the mission. Just then the ship shook again…cutting the lights out everywhere.

"C'mon Artoo." I heard her quietly say and Artoo beep in response.

Artoo began to light up the hallway with his flashlight as we walked down it, and I switched my helmet over to night vision. Anakin and Ahsoka also activated their lightsabers.

"Artoo says we're close. Stay sharp." Anakin instructed.

I moved to the right of a pipe that was sticking out, and within a few moments later, I heard Rex hit his head against it.

"Ow!" He said in annoyance.

"You guys don't have night vision?" I asked in amusement.

"Of course, we do." Rex replied still annoyed. He looked to the other clones behind him. "Switch to night vision."

We continued to walk down the dark hall, but eventually saw a figure running past us up ahead a little way.

"There!" I shouted and we all began to run after the figure…knowing it was Bane.

He eventually led us into a dark room and that's when I realized where we were.

"Oh no…it's a trap." I murmured to myself.

Just then, the lights came back on, and in front of us stood Bane and an army of droids waiting to attack.

"Welcome, Jedi and Mandalorian. We've been expecting you…Kill them!" He ordered and the droids began firing.

"Hell with orders" I murmured and pulled out my two blasters and began firing at will.

At this point I didn't care if I was disobeying protocol…I was fighting for my life.

Anakin began charging at Bane, and the next thing we knew, we all started floating.

"Magnetics!" One of the troopers shouted. "You were trained for this!"

I quickly put one of my blaster's away and grabbed onto one of the metal bar's above my head, while still firing with the other. That's when I realized two things: the first being, I had a jet pack, so I could possibly get around the anti-gravity, and the second being I had two flamethrowers, pocket grenades, and micro-blasters, attached to my wrist. This was about to get interesting.

"It's like I always have to fix everything." I sighed as I let go of the metal bar and activated my jet pack.

As I hovered over a small pocket of droids, I began to fire with the micro-blasters that allowed me to practically blow up my enemies. While it destroyed most it still didn't destroy the rest of the incoming ones. That's when I activated my whipcord so could position myself on the surface again, activated my flamethrowers, and destroyed an entire battalion of droids. Just by using the weapons on my wrist alone.

It was during this time that Artoo had finally turned the gravity back on, so I was finally able to detach myself from the floor. As I turned around, I heard Anakin shout:

"Ahsoka, wait! It's a trap!"

I quickly turned around and began to run after Anakin who was running after Ahsoka.

"Ahsoka, wait!" He continued to shout. "We'll take him together!"

But it was too late…Bane had already sealed the hanger door shut. Anakin began to cut through it with his lightsaber, but it wasn't going to work, as one of the explosive shells, had been set off by one of the droids, causing an explosion in the hanger. Anakin and I looked above us, as the debris began to fall from the ceiling.

"Get down!" I shouted and both of us took cover together underneath the debris.

I couldn't see anything as my helmet was officially cracked and broken, thanks to the debris. Anakin used the force to quickly get the fallen debris off us.

"Are you alright?" He asked once we were free again.

I took my helmet…or what was left of it off and threw it to the side.

"Perfect." I said with an eyeroll.

"Aurora," He said with concern. "You're bleeding."

I reached up and touched my right temple and noticed the blood on my glove.

I shook my head. "Never mind that…we need to find Ahsoka."

"General Skywalker! You're Highness! Can you hear me?" Rex shouted from the other side of the debris. "Are you both all right in there?"

"Yeah, we're all right." Anakin explained. "Get back to the hangar, find a transport, but wait for us as long as you can."

"We're on it, sir!" Rex shouted back.

"Ahsoka, do you copy?" Anakin said into his coms.

No answer.

"Maybe the signal was damaged in the explosion?" I questioned as I began to look around for a way out.

Just then, his coms began to beep once again.

I whipped my head around. "Ahsoka?"

He shook his head. "No…Yularen…What is it Admiral?"

"There's a power surge heading toward the bridge. If you're there, get out immediately. You must abandon your mission." Yularen instructed.

"I don't have the holocron memory and I seem to have misplaced my Padawan." Anakin awkwardly replied making me snicker in response.

"The ship is tearing itself apart!" The Admiral shouted.

"Move off to a safe distance, Admiral, and await my signal for evacuation." Anakin replied before ending the coms.

"I guarantee he's not happy in the slightest." I said with a smirk.

He smirked back. "Nope, not even in the slightest."

After we finally got the hatch door open, we proceeded down the hallway we originally came down. We were silent until Anakin said:

"I know you want to kill Bane."

I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at him.

"Why would you think that?" I questioned.

"You want revenge, for what happened on Corellia…he tried to kill you didn't he?" He asked and I slowly nodded in response.

"Listen." I sternly began. "I'm not a Jedi…I don't follow some precious code…I will do what I must to get what I want…and if that means I have to kill Bane, I will. Bane will die at my hands, whether you or your Jedi council like it or not."

"There are better ways to go about this." He began. "Murder is not the option."

"Easy for you to say! You have no idea what it's like to be tortured…I've been on both ends…you or any of your Jedi pals don't know what its like!" I snapped. "And the idea that I was left there to die…no one came for me…you have no idea how much I want revenge on that man."

He sighed. "I know, and your right, I don't. But now is not the time to seek revenge. Ahsoka is captured and probably getting tortured as we speak…we have to find her and get her off of this ship."

I sighed; he was right. Ahsoka was more important than murdering Bane.

"You're right." I responded quietly. "Let's keep going."

Both of us continued walking down the hallway and eventually came across three battle droids.

"You said we'd be safe back here." One droid said before running back to the communication panel.

Anakin activated his lightsaber I pulled one of my blasters out of my thigh-holster.

"Come on, there's three of us, and only two of them!" Another said with hope.

"It won't matter." The final one said.

"Sir, a Jedi and Mandalorian are coming. They look very unhappy." The droid at the communication panel said before I shot him with my blaster.

After the droid was killed, we opened the blast door to reveal Bane, standing with two droids, and Ahsoka inside of a cell.

"You have nowhere left to run, Bounty Hunter." Anakin began.

"Let me worry about that, Jedi." Bane began. "If I activate this control, the outside airlock will open, and she will be sucked into oblivion. Do you think you can kill me and then save her before she's pulled into space? It's a horrible way to die. Besides, isn't negotiation the Jedi way?"

"It maybe the Jedi's, but it's not mine." I replied in anger.

"I remember you from Corellia." Bane began. "You almost died at my hands Princess…perhaps she will experience the pain I brought you…or worse."

"What do you want?" Anakin asked in anger as he deactivated his lightsaber.

"This holocron carries information I've been paid to collect. I can't unlock it, but you can. The last Jedi who had it wouldn't open it. I hope you don't make the same mistake. We don't have much time. Hurry it up, Jedi, or she dies!" Bane taunted.

I looked over to Anakin, who looked fearful for Ahsoka. He then glanced back to me, and he could see the fearful look in my eyes.

"No Master!" Ahsoka shouted. "Don't do it!"

Anakin sighed. "I can't let you die Ahsoka."

"Master no!" Ahsoka yelled.

"We'll deal with the holocron later." I said in a calm voice, which calmed her down to some extent.

"How touching." Bane taunted making me fill with more rage.

Anakin sat down and the holocron sat in front of him. He closed his eyes and within a few moments, the holocron began to float. A light began to shine through it, and it then began to open. I stared at it with wide eyes. I'd never seen anything more fascinating than this. The light was bright, and it felt like it was calling to me. It was entrancing…I felt like I wanted to take a step closer…like it wanted me to come closer…but I didn't.

"Now I will combine this holocron with the memory crystal I acquired from your dead Jedi friend." Bane began as he placed the memory crystal within the now open holocron. "My employers will be most pleased."

Anakin then used the force to grab both his and Ahsoka's lightsabers, and just as he was doing so, Bane activated opened the hatch to Ahsoka's cell, which began to suck out the contents into space.

"GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!" I shouted to her, and she did by grabbing onto one of the portions of the cell. Bane activated his jetpack and got away, while I activated mine to close the hatch doors, so the three of us wouldn't get sucked into space.

Anakin took Ahsoka's handcuffs off and gave her lightsaber back to her.

"Come on," I said grabbing my blaster from the ground and putting it back into my holster. "We've got work to do."

"What happened to your helmet?" Ahsoka asked as we walked out of the cell and broke out into a run back down the corridor.

"It's a long story." I said in annoyance.

Anakin activated his coms. "Rex, I hope you found us a ride off this bucket!"

"We've got to leave now." Rex began. "The reactor's gonna blow. We cannot wait!"

"You'll have to!" I said with confidence. "I'm going after Bane."

"I'm going with you!" Anakin agreed and we both continued to run down the corridor.

"Master, Aurora, wait!" Ahsoka called after me. "Stop!"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face Ahsoka.

"This is the way to the hanger! We must get off the ship now!" Ahsoka said pointing down another corridor.

"I can't let Bane get away." Anakin and I both said at the same time.

"Patience, both of you…patience." She said in a calming voice.

Anakin sighed. "You're right."

I also sighed knowing Ahsoka was right, and we all ran down the corridor that led toward the hanger. Eventually, we did reach the hanger and noticed the shuttle that Rex was loading the surviving clones into. I glanced up and noticed a trooper shooting Bane up on the balcony above the hanger, and I smirked as his body fell from it.

"Come on, come on!" Rex shouted as he waved us toward the shuttle and the three of us jumped onto it. The trooper who shot Bane jumped onto the shuttle as well, just as we started to take off.

"Trooper, did you get the holocron?" Anakin asked.

The clone shook his head. "No, sir."

"I'll get it Master." Ahsoka said as she started to get ready to jump off the shuttle.

"No time." Anakin explained. "Rex, get us out of here."

Sure enough, within the next few moments we were off of the ship within seconds of it exploding.

"Well, it looks like the holocron was destroyed, but at least the Separatists didn't get it." Ahsoka said with some sorrow.

"Bane's dead, but I still can feel him." Anakin replied with the slightest head shake.

"Don't worry, I saw his dead body fall from the balcony." I explained. "He's gone."

I wasn't paying attention to the exchange that Anakin and Ahsoka had, but when we finally arrived back on the Resolute, Anakin and I walked up to the admiral.

"So," Yularen began. "Did you manage to recover the holocron or capture the bounty hunter?"

Anakin and I glanced to each other then back to the admiral.

"Um, no and no." Anakin responded.

The admiral nodded. "I see. So, the mission was your usual version of success, then?

Anakin smirked. "If by success you mean, 'I won' then yes."

Yularen rolled his eyes before walking away from us.

"So...flamethrowers?" Anakin smirked and I laughed in response.

I smirked as I held up both of my arms to show off my beskar gauntlets. "I know you're jealous."

"As if." He replied and we both laughed.

Ahsoka came running up to the both of us.

"By the way before I forget…WHEN DID YOU GET FLAMETHROWERS?"

I laughed again. "They're built into my gauntlets. If you want, I'll show you how to use them sometime."

"I'd love that!" Ahsoka said with excitement.

"No." Anakin said sternly and Ahsoka frowned.

I winked at Ahsoka in response, and she smiled again.

"So, what now?" Ahsoka asked.

"We get the injured to the medical bay." Anakin instructed.

"General, Your Highness, there's something I think you both should see!" Rex shouted waving us over to the shuttle.

I tilted my head in confusion…what the hell could've happened in the past five minutes of us landing?