I'm back! Sorry for the delay, summer classes and what not. Luckily, now I finished my first two and I have two weeks until my next class. Fortunately, it's only one class instead of two so less work. Anyway, in this chapter, we see the introduction of a fan favorite character. Only this time not in cameo form!
It had only been a couple of minutes, but to Obi-Wan, it had felt like hours as he dodged any strikes from the stranger. Obi-Wan had just disarmed the stranger of his knife. Fortunately, the stranger looked like he was about to pass out as he was sweating heavily and panting. Obi-Wan had his back to the escape pod.
"Are you done?" Obi-Wan asked. He could end this quickly even with non-lethal force, but he abhorred unnecessary violence. Even though, the stranger was force sensitive he didn't seem to be aware of it.
The strangers' legs were bent as he crouched looking down. "Not… yet…" He said while panting heavily.
Obi-Wan sighed and rubbed his temples.
"I don't want to hurt you, young man," Kenobi said sternly.
Obi-Wan got a look in his eyes and saw that he was terrified. He was still out of breath, but not as much as last time. "You're not fooling me man!" He said.
"I'm not trying to fool you at all," Obi-Wan said trying to reassure him. "I can tell you're confused and scared. I can provide assistance, if you tell me what's wrong." Obi-Wan said.
"I'm not telling you anything!" He shouted throwing a punch.
Suddenly, the stranger's fist zoomed in close to the Jedi's face. Obi-Wan dodged it, but the stranger's fist contacted with the durasteel escape pod. The stranger screamed in agony while clutching his most-likely broken hand and shouted what Obi-Wan believed to be curses.
"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked feeling genuinely concerned for the young man. He walked up to him.
"I'm fine!" He groaned through gritted teeth. Obi-Wan was unconvinced, however. Even Anakin was a much more convincing liar than this person was.
"Are you?" Obi-Wan asked sarcastically raising an eyebrow. He was going to call medical support. He turned his back on the stranger letting him deal with his own injury for the time being. He turned toward a rock embedded in a nearby cliff. He was about to access his communicator when…
"GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" The stranger cried out in pain after he accidentally punched the rock behind Obi-Wan possibly breaking his other hand. Obi-Wan dodged out of instinct.
"WHY?!" He shouted in both anger and pain.
Obi-Wan sighed in annoyance. He was quite persistent, Kenobi had to give him that.
"This is General Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am sending you my coordinates for medical support. It is not for me, but a neutral combatant." He said on his comm. He used the term "neutral" lightly though.
Anakin rushed through the forest at a breakneck pace. Ventress was heading towards Obi-Wan's position, but all that mattered was Anakin getting to Obi-Wan first.
He locked onto Obi-Wan's signature and felt that he was okay, if not a little bit annoyed. He also felt like another one that was hurt and confused.
All of a sudden, Anakin ran into a squad of battle droids.
"Look a Jedi!" One of the B1 Battle Droids alerted the others.
They began to open fire at the padawan. Anakin reflected their shots back killing four of them. He used the force to knock down the remaining three.
A couple of B2 droid began to shoot at him. Anakin took evasive maneuvers and dodged each of their shots. Rushing up to each one cutting them down to partially melted scrap.
Anakin continued on his trek. He was determined to stop Ventress, and not fail again.
He sensed something in the force… Something bad. He felt four presences disappear swiftly close by. If Anakin were a betting man, he'd wager that Ventress had just struck.
"She made a mistake." Anakin thought grimly.
"Medical support will be here in around ten minutes." Obi-Wan said to the stranger who had stopped fighting because of his injuries.
"I would like to speak to him." Ben said.
"Very well." Obi-Wan replied.
Ben was now in control of the body and walked towards the stranger.
"I'm sorry whatever has happened to you." He said. "I never got your name." Ben brought up.
"Go to hell." The stranger muttered defiantly.
Ben sighed.
"Tell me something, if you truly believed that I wanted to harm you why have I not killed you?" Ben asked.
"You want to interrogate me like that alien did." The stranger said.
"Ventress..." Ben thought.
"Tell me did she have something like this?" Ben said holding out his lightsaber and igniting it. "Was her blade red?" He asked.
"Maybe…" The stranger said hiding the truth.
"I can assure you, young man, that whoever you saw is not like me." Ben said keeping his cover.
"Okay, buddy. Then answer me this," The stranger said starting to get impatient. "Who or What the hell are you?!" He asked.
"Very well. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am a Jedi Knight and General of the Galactic Republic." Ben said introducing himself. "I believe that the person you had encountered was an ally of the Sith and Confederacy of Independent Systems. Two organizations that I am against on principle and duty." Ben said.
"That…Doesn't clear up anything." The stranger said completely confused. "Like at all…" He said dumbfounded.
Ben was confused.
"You're not from around here, are you?" Ben said and asked. "What is your name, young man?" He asked.
The stranger hesitated. Ben felt how uneased he was. It reminded him of a lot of people he knew like Anakin, Ahsoka, and Luke. Ben used the force to try and help soothe him. It appeared to work, as he felt a little more relaxed.
"It's Jack, and I'm not going to lie to you sir… I've had a really awful day." He said. "Possibly the worst day of my life." Jack said.
"Well then Jack. Do you wish to talk about it? I can understand if you don't want to." Ben said. Both Kenobis were curious, but did not want to pry it out of him.
Jack hesitated for a moment, but decided to talk to the Jedi.
Anakin was heading towards where he felt the ambush happened.
He was sensed Obi-Wan and the presence was. It appeared the other presence had calmed down.
The padawan could feel how close he was. However, he could not feel Ventress. He was starting to feel paranoid. She was skilled and extremely dangerous. Although, not as much as Dooku.
"No…Not this time." Anakin thought as he looked at his arm.
The burning pain he felt over and under his eye was not helping him forget. He had just lost his arm and now he had to go back to Padmé and explain his new scar. At this point, Anakin was starting to fear that by the end of the war he'd lose all of his limbs. A fate he so desperately wanted to avoid.
He jumped over a small cliff and continued his sprint through the forest. He stopped when he noticed the bodies of some clone troopers. All dead and cut down with what could only be from a lightsaber. Faint smoke could be seen emanating from their cuts.
Anakin felt a sense of loss for the clones. Not just because they were allies, but also because that he could relate to them in a way. He understood what it was like to be indoctrinated to only follow orders. Memories from his childhood began to haunt him. He fought back those memories as he remembered how his mother escaped freedom and found happiness. While he managed to find love and its approval.
He noticed a body stirring and starting to stand up. He wore ARC trooper armor with blue markings on it. The clone took off his helmet, revealing his bleached hair, beginning to heave as he stood on bended knees. He turned towards Anakin.
"Commander." He said saluting. Anakin took notice that despite what probably happened previously the Clone Trooper's tone still came across as professional and unshaken.
"What happened? Where did she go?" Anakin asked.
The clone seemed uneased as he recalled what had happened.
"My brothers and I were heading towards a distress signal when all of a sudden a woman with two red lightsabers jumped out and attacked us from behind. Most of us could barely react by the time we could see her. I was just knocked down, but the others were…not so lucky." He said solemnly while trying to control the rest of his emotions.
"I'm sorry to hear about that." Anakin said compassionately putting a hand on the clone's shoulder.
"Thanks, sir. I appreciate it, but you shouldn't worry to much about it." The captain said. "I think I saw her head north. Probably towards the signal that General Kenobi sent." He said.
"Oh no." Anakin thought.
"I have to go now." Anakin said.
"If it's all the same commander, I'd like to accompany you myself." The trooper said offering help. "You can never know when you need a spare blaster by your side besides I owe that witch one for." He said trying to convince Anakin.
"Thank you, Captain…" Anakin said trying to get the helpful troopers name.
"CT-7567 of the 501st Legion, Torrent Company." The trooper introduced himself. "You can call me Captain Rex if you'd prefer to sir." Rex said.
"Very well," Anakin said. "I'm Anakin Skywalker." He said introducing himself extending his right hand.
"An honor to meet you, sir." Rex said shaking the padawan's hand. "I've heard a lot about you. Some good things I've heard." He said.
Anakin smirked. "That was clever." Anakin said. "Hopefully, you'll earn a reputation yourself." Anakin snarked.
He heard a bemused chuckle emanate from the Clone.
"I'll show you the way." Rex said as he began to run.
Anakin followed Rex to where his master was.
"This wall you saw," Ben said. "You're saying you somehow unlocked it and it led you to here?" He asked.
"Well, if you want to get technical about it... Yeah, pretty much." Jack said. "When the wall opened up I went inside and saw…"
Before the young man could finish, Ben stood up from the rock he was sitting on and turned around while drawing out his lightsaber. Jack tensed up when he moved his head past to where Obi-Wan was standing. Ventress.
"No, go ahead finish your story by all means. I thought it was quite interesting." She said in a faux playful manner.
Ventress dropped down from the small cliff and ignited both lightsabers getting ready for a duel.
All right I hope you all liked it. I felt that this was the best place for it to stop. Hopefully, I'll be able to get more work on this story now since I'll only have one summer class starting in a week or so. On the plus side, we've met Captain Rex (my favorite Clone Trooper and I'm pretty sure there a lot of readers who have the same opinion as myself). Next chapter will have more action in it and probably be the last before we head into the Clone Wars movie. If you think I should go into more detail about this Battle on Yavin leave a comment. If not then I'll go into more detail in another story where it will be more integral to the plot. Until then, may the force be with you.
