Spectre: Hey, it's me again! Took me a while to what should I prioritize first, and I decided to go to Attack of the Clones. Why? Because I don't think anyone has written about it and this is my shot!
Fortitude501: I plan to continue this until Black Ops, but I don't think I would be able to do the Pacific Campaign because they have little or no impact to the Black Ops Storyline though I could at least pull off one mission from there. Also I'm not sure of the suggestions you sent me.
Jocoleman2017: I plan to, and I plan to start at the Pazzi Conspiracy.
Guest: Haven't watched Dark Knight yet but might try.
Inspiration: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Chapter 13: Battle of Geonosis, Part 1
"That's that", Aeralyn announced to them as they sat down, impressed at Jaune's moves as an assassin.
"Now, we ran practically ran out of ideas of what we are going to show you, so I ask, which universe would you like to re-visit?", Flit asked the audience who huddled around to what they're going to watch.
"Can it be the sixth? You the one with light swords?", Jaune asked.
"Lightsaber!", Ruby corrected him. "But preferably before things went bad?",
"My little sister means how it began. Before dad went evil and all", Yang said at her behalf.
Flit and Aeralyn nodded as they pressed the remote, and the screen flashed white.
Four sturdy posts, a meter in diameter, were centered on the arena floor, each set with chains, and one holding a familiar figure. "Qrow!" Taiyang cried as he was pulled down from the cart, dragged over, and chained to the post beside his Master. "I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message," Qrow replied.
Both he and Taiyang winced as Summer was similarly, roughly dragged over to the post next to Taiyang, and roughly chained up. They saw her curl a bit, defensively, in what seemed a futile resistance. What they didn't see, though, was the resourceful Summer managing to slip out a wire she had hidden in her belt. "I retransmitted your message just as you requested, Master," Taiyang explained. "Then we decided to come and rescue you."
"It's pretty obvious that it didn't went according to plan", Raven deadpanned.
"Oh come on, at least I'm a better planner than Qrow", Taiyang snorted.
"Hey!", said man called out before chugging his flask.
"I actually don't remember the both of you being effective planners at all", Summer honestly said before Taiyang and Qrow slumped their shoulders in defeat.
"Good job!" came Qrow's quick and sarcastic reply. He ended with a grunt as his arms were pulled up above his head, locking him helplessly in place. Taiyang and Summer were receiving similar treatment. They could turn a bit side to side, though, and so all three were able to watch the arrival of the dignitaries, the masters of ceremony--faces they had come to know all too well. "The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis," announced the lackey, Sun Fac. "Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this arena immediately!"
"Uggh. Man-sized talking bug..", Ruby groaned in disgust at the sight.
"That Ruby, is a Geonosian, a natural being of Geonosis. Hundreds of planets can compose of several different species but we'll deal with that later on.
"Does that mean there are like, thousands of them?", Phyrra questioned, feeling her insides to be violated.
"Millions to be exact", Aeralyn corrected her as the audience felt disgusted at the thought of that many man-sized bugs.
The wild cheering deafened the doomed trio. "They like their executions," Qrow said dryly. At the dignitary box, Sun Fac gave way to Archduke Poggle the Lesser, who patted his hands in the air, calling for quiet. "I have decided on an especially entertaining contest this day," he announced, to more appreciative roaring. "Which of our pets would be most suited to carry out the executions of such distinguished criminals? I asked myself this over and over, and for many hours, could find no answer.
"That's their method of execution?", Glynda questioned, not recalling any of the Kingdoms employing executions by being devoures by beasts.
"Different planet, Ms. Goodwitch. I can presume this was the case", Ozpin said to her.
"Interesting species...", a voice called out as Glynda and Ozpin immediatley recognized it to be from Bartholomew Oobleck. He was not alone, however and Peter Port sat next to him as he took down notes.
"Bart? Peter? How did you get here?", Ozpin asked the two professors.
"Well, we were looking for the both of you until we ended up being sucked in a dark void. That is where we met Mr. Flit and Ms. Aeralyn who invited me and Oobleck to watch some interesting screenings", Port exclaimed to them.
"Well...more the merrier?", Ozpin jokingly remarked as the students groan, not wanting to hear any of Port's adventures.
"And finally, I chose--" He paused dramatically and the crowd hushed. "--the reek!" At the side of the arena, a gate was lifted and out stepped a huge quadruped with massive shoulders, an elongated face, and three deadly horns, one sticking up from its snout and the other two protruding forward from either side of its wide mouth. The reek stood as tall as a Wookiee, as wide as a human male was tall, and more than four meters long. It was prodded forward into the arena by a line of picadors carrying long spears and riding creatures that were bovine in size, with elongated snouts.
"This one makes an Ursa look like a pipsqueak", Mercury remarked at the size of the monster displayed to them.
Salem watched in fascination of the beast, thinking where she would find that type of monster for her to use.
After the cheering died away, Poggle surprised the crowd by announcing, "The nexu!" A second gate rose, revealing a large feline creature. Its head was an extraordinary thing, half the size of its body and with a fangfilled mouth that could open wide enough to bite a large human in half. A ridge of fur stood straight in a line from head to rump, ending right before its whipping, felinoid tail. Before the surprised crowd could erupt again, Poggle shouted, "And the Acklay!" and a third gate rose and the most hideous creature of all rushed in.It moved spiderlike on four legs, each ending in huge elongated claws. Other arms waved menacingly, similarly topped with claws that snapped in the air. Its head, crested by a long and wavy horn, was more than two meters above the ground, glancing about hungrily, and while the other two creatures seemed to need the prodding of the picadors, this one surely did not. This last one, the acklay, seemed to be the true crowdpleaser, especially to the young boy, Roman Fett's cloned son, sitting with the dignitaries. Adam grinned and began reciting all that he had read of the deadly beast's exploits.
"Marvelous creatures! I never seen any Grimm with size or characteristics like that!", Port remarked with fascination as Oobleck was quickly scribbling down notes on his notepad.
"They really wanted to use them in a while eh?", Nora said, seeing that to be overkill and judging by the spectators, they wanted to see the beast devour the accused.
"I suppose so, Nora", Ren answered her.
Roman was surprised at the prospect of him having a son. "Wait...I'm a dad?", he asked the Observers, not really seeing himself as an actual father but he does see Neo as the closest thing he had to a daughter while Blake was likewise surprised at this at seeing Adam as Roman's son in this universe.
"Well...more or less", Aeralyn answered Roman before Flit turned to explain.
"You were actually a Bounty Hunter who was hired became the genetic template of the Galactic Republic's Clone Army, and Adam here, is another clone of you, but you have his age fixed so he can age normally unlike other clones, who had accelerated aging process", Flit explained to them as the audience who knew the thief, grimaced at the fact that there are millions of Romans.
Ironwood and Ozpin frowned at the thought of cloning. The General hated the process after seeing some of Arthur Watts's experiments gone wrong that involve cloning. Ozpin didn't like the process either, stating that life is not to be tampered with at any process.
Salem and Watts, expressed interest at the process, possibly seeing the effectiveness of more troops who carry the same genetics that involved skill.
"Well, this should be fun--for them, at least," lamented Qrow, watching the frenzy mounting around him. "What?" Taiyang asked."Never mind," Qtow replied. "You ready for the fight?"
"The fight?" Taiyang asked skeptically, looking up at his chained wrists, then back at the three monsters, which had been milling about, and only now seemed to take note that lunch had been served. "You want to give the crowd its money's worth, don't you?" Qrow asked. "You take the one on the right. I'll take the one on the left."
"What about Summer?"
The two turned to discover that their clever companion had already used the concealed wire to pick the lock on one of her shackles, and had turned her body about, facing the post. She climbed right up the chain to the top of that post, then went to work on the other shackle.
"She seems to be on top of things," Taiyang commented wryly.
"It seems they are trying to find a way out despite the circumstances", Glynda commented.
"Taiyang and Qrow seemed to have a formidable teamwork at this one", Ozpin lamented.
"But still, I wished dad and Uncle Qrow never became enemies", Ruby lamented with sadness, remembering the sixth screening they had watched.
Taiyang looked back just in time to react to the charge of the reek. Acting purely on reflex, the young Jedi leapt straight up, and the beast plowed into the pole beneath him. Seeing an opportunity, Taiyang dropped upon the beast's back and wrapped his chain about its strong horn. The reek bucked and tugged, tearing the chain free of the post, and they were off, the reek bucking and Taiyang holding on for dear life. He slapped the free end of the chain at the side of the reek's head, and the vicious beast bit it and held on, its stubbornness providing Taiyang a makeshift bridle.
"Quite the acrobat, Tai", Qrow remarked at this teammate's performance.
"I couldn't say the same for you, yet", Taiyang replied.
Qrow quickly came to learn why the acklay was such a crowd-pleaser. The creature reared up high and came straight in at him. When Qrow rushed behind the pole, the acklay took a more direct route, crashing into the pole, its gigantic claws snapping the wood and the chain. Freed by the beast's fury, Qrow turned and ran, sprinting right at the nearest picador, the acklay in fast pursuit. The Geonosian lowered his spear at the Jedi, but Qrow dodged inside and grabbed it. A sudden tug pulled it free, and Qrow snapped it against the picador's mount, causing the creature to rear. Hardly slowing, Qrow planted the butt of the lance in the ground and leapt, polevaulting the picador and his mount. Again the acklay took the more direct route, slamming into rider and mount, sending the Geonosian tumbling to the sand. Grabbing the picador up in the snap of a claw, the monster crunched the life from him.
"Awesome!", Ruby and Yang cheered for their uncle.
"So this is how the Jedi moved", Taiyang lamented in fascination.
"The Jedi and Sith are trained in the ways of the force through Martial Arts, Lightsaber Combat or the use of the Force itself that made them formidable warriors.", Aeralyn explained to them.
Atop her post, Summer worked frantically to free the chain. But already the feline-like nexu was leaping up to swipe at her with its deadly claws. She dodged, but the nexu came on again. Summer whipped it with the chain. The beast didn't stop, its claws tearing into the pole as it climbed. Then, with a sudden burst, it leapt up to the top and reared before Summer issuing a victorious roar. The crowd hushed, sensing the first kill.As the nexu slashed, Summer turned in a circle the other way, and while the claws tore her shirt and superficially raked her back, she came around hard, delivering a solid blow across the beast's face with the free-flying end of the chain. The nexu fell back off the pole. Summer leapt out and back, away from the creature and to the side, and let the chain tug her back, sending her in a spin about the pole. She tucked her legs as she spun, then double-kicked out, knocking the nexu to the ground. Hardly pausing to consider her handiwork, she scrambled back up the pole, working furiously to free herself completely.
The crowd gasped as one. "Foul!" cried Jacques Gunray in the dignitary box. "She can't do that! Shoot her or something!" "Wow!" Adam Fett yelled in obvious admiration. Roman put his hand on his son's shoulder, enjoying the show every bit as much as Adam. "The nexu will have her, Viceroy," Poggle the Lesser assured the trembling man. Jacques remained standing, as did everyone else in the box, as did everyone else in the stadium. The crowd gasped again as Qrow ran around behind the picador's fallen mount, then launched the stolen spear into the neck of the furious acklay.
"This is intense", Blake remarked as she wiped the sweat from her head.
"Facing off against oversize monsters with nothing but wits and any means, I'd say you're right", Weiss agreed with her.
The beast screeched in pain and slapped the struggling orray mount aside. Across the way, Summer continued to work the chain as the Nexu regained its balance and began to stalk back toward the pole. Finally, she was free. But the Nexu was right below her, looking up, drool spilling from its oversized maw, death in its eyes. It crouched, ready to spring. And got trampled into the ground by Taiyang and his reek mount. "You okay?" he called.
"Sure.", Summer replied.
"Jump on!" Taiyang cried, and Summer was already moving, leaping down from the pole to fall into place right behind Taiyang.
They passed the wounded and furious acklay next, and Qrow was quick to take Summer's hand and vault into place behind her. Adam Fett yelped in glee again, as did many of the Geonosians. Jacuqes Gunray, though, wasn't quite so pleased. "This isn't how it's supposed to be!" he yelled at Countess Cinder. "She's supposed to be dead by now!"
"Patience," the calm Countess replied.
"No!" Jacques Gunray shouted back at her.
"Roman, finish her off!" Roman turned an amused expression Jacques Gunray's way, and nodded knowingly as Countess Cinder motioned for him to stay put.
"You look confident, Cinder", Emerald said to her teammate.
"Since when is she not confident", Mercury said rolling her eyes.
Cinder eyed her counterpart. She didn't appear to be power-hungry or had large ambitions. She was calm, confident and optimistic, something that she apparently lacked.
"Patience, Viceroy," Cinder said to the fuming Gunray. "She will die." Even as he spoke, even as Gunray seemed about to explode with rage, the Countess motioned back to the arena, and the white-haired male turned to see a group of Droidekas roll out from the side paddock.
"Rolling robots!", Ruby called out with glee as she saw the mechanical beings.
Ironwood cupped his chin in interest. "Penny can you write that down? They seem to be powerful models", he asked as the robot girl nodded and began to record the screen with her eyes.
"Cheap shot! They really have to send in tin cans for that?", Yang called out in dismay for her alternate father and uncle.
They surrounded the reek and the three prisoners and opened and unfolded into their battle position, giving Taiyang no choice but to pull back hard on the makeshift rein and halt the creature. "You see?" Cinder calmly asked.
The Countess's expression changed, though, just for a moment, as a familiar hum began right behind her. She glanced to her right quickly, to see a purple lightsaber blade right beside Roman Fett's neck, then turned slowly to regard the wielder. "Master Lionheart," she said with her typical charm. "How pleasant of you to join us!"
"Lady-like Cinder?", Mercury remarked in amusement. "That's new."
"This party's over." With that, the Jedi Master gave a quick salute with his glowing lightsaber, the prearranged signal, and then brought the blade back in close to Roman Fett.
All about the stadium came a sudden and synchronized flash of lights as a hundred Jedi Knights ignited their lightsabers. Bartholomew Oobleck, Peter Port, Glynda Goodwitch, and many others revealed themselves as they ignited their lightsabers.
"Way for the one liner!", Yang cheered to the screen.
"Finally! Backup!", Phyrra exclaimed with relief.
"Fine way to make an entrance", Ironwood complimented to Glynda and her associates.
After a moment's reflection, Countess Cinder turned about just a bit, looking back at Leonardo Lionheart out of the corner of her eye. "Brave, but foolish, my old Jedi friend. You're impossibly outnumbered."
"I don't think so," Lionheart countered but Cinder merely smirked. She had timed it perfectly. Just as she finished, a line of battle droids came down the corridor behind Lionheart, their lasers firing. The Jedi reacted at once, spinning about and flashing his lightsaber to deflect the many bolts, turning them back on his attackers.
"Awesome!", Ruby cheered with starry eyes at the prospect of beam weapons.
"Can such technology be developed, General?" Winter asked.
"Possible but development will take more time", Ironwood replied to her. "Penny continue taking more notes of this, we may get some ideas for the military"
"Right away, sir!", Penny complied as she began to record it at her memory.
Lionheart knew that these few droids were the least of his troubles, though, for as he glanced around he saw the source of Cinder's confidence thousands of battle droids rolling along every ramp, in the stands and out into the arena below. The fight began immediately, the whole stadium filling with screaming laser bolts, Jedi leaping and spinning, trying to close into tight defensive groups, their lightsabers deflecting the bolts wildly. Geonosians scrambled all about, some trying to attack the Jedi--and dying for their trouble--others just scrambling to get out of the way of the wild fire. Leonardo Lionheart spun about, recognizing that his most dangerous enemies were behind him. He faced Roman Fett--and found himself looking down the barrel of a stout flamethrower. A burst of flames reached out for the Jedi Master, igniting his flowing robes. With both Cinder and the bounty hunter so close, and in such a vulnerable position, Leonardo just leapt away, lifting himself with the Force to fly out from the box and land in the arena. He pulled the burning robe from his back, throwing it aside.
"Neo, remind me to get myself a sort of mini-flamethrower when we get back. The other me packs a punch!", Roman said to the girl as she nodded.
"Even in another universe, Roman is still a prick here", Yang commented.
"And deadlier if we are to focus on his weaponry", Phyrra pointed out.
All around him, the fight intensified, with Jedi battling scores of Geonosians in the stands, and many other Jedi rushing down to the arena floor to join the battle against the largest concentrations of Battle Droids. Lionheart winced when he spotted Qrow, Taiyang, and Summer sent flying into the air by the terrified and bucking reek. He motioned to other Jedi, but needn't have, for those closest were already rushing toward their vulnerable companions, throwing lightsabers to Taiyang and Qrow. When those two ignited their blades, Taiyang's green and Qrow's blue, and Summer came up between them, a discarded blaster pistol in hand, Leonardo breathed a bit easier.
But only for a moment. Then the Jedi Master was a blur of motion once more, working his blade furiously to turn back the storm of laser bolts screaming at him from the multitude of battle droids. He joined Qrow n ear the center of the arena soon after, and back-toback, they went into action, moving into a crowd of droids, taking down several with deflected bolts, then slashing through, turning in unison as they went. Qrow went at one droid with his lightsaber up high, but when that droid lifted its defenses appropriately, the two Jedi turned about, Lionheart coming around with his lightsaber down low, shearing the droid in half.
"Oh my god!", Ruby exclaimed with fascination as her she went into weapon overload where she began asking questions in a rapid pace so much so that they can barely keep up to what she is saying. Eventually, Flit stepped in to explain its nature before she went back to her seat, marveled at the nature of the weapons.
Behind Lionheart and Qrow, Taiyang and Summer fought in a similar back-to-back posture, with Taiyang working in a mostly defensive manner, deflecting all the bolts coming at him and at Summer, while she picked her shots carefully, taking down droid after droid after Geonosian. But despite all the gallant efforts, despite the mounds of slaughtered enemies, Geonosian and droid alike, the outcome was beginning to show clearly, as the Jedi were being pushed back by sheer numbers. The general retreat flowed toward the arena, though that area would provide little respite. In addition to the droids and Jedi, the two monsters rushed about crazily, destroying everything in their path.
"Oh man, talk about a warzone in one arena", Mercury commented.
"The Jedi's numbers are slowly dwindling. Unless there is backup, it would only be a matter of time until they are wiped out", Cinder answered as she observed their situation.
C-3PO, nicknamed Klein, entered the maelstrom, and if his eye sockets would have allowed him to widen his eyes in surprise and terror, he surely would have. "Where are we?" he cried. "A battle! Oh no! This is a terrible mistake! I am program to educate! Not destruction!"
"Isn't that your butler?", Ruby asked the Schnee Heiress.
Weiss facepalmed at the unfortunate situation her butler is in, embarassed that his ended up in another body.
This mixed-up droid lasted about as long as his other half had, across the way. He came around to face the Jedi Master Peter Port, who slammed him hard with a Force shove, knocking him to the ground. Next, the agile Jedi did a pirouette movement and with a vicious slice of his lightsaber, took down the battle droid that had been in line right beside Klein. It collapsed on top of Klein's prone form.
"Help! I'm trapped! I can't get up!" C-3PO wailed, a call that caught the attention of none. Save one. P3-N1 rolled into the arena and wove his way about the carnage and danger.
Everyone snickered at this escapade.
No number of battle droids could hope to separate Lionheart and Qrow, so perfect were their movements, so attuned were they to each other. But the sheer bulk of the reek was too much even for a pair of lightsabers, and when the furious beast charged at the two Jedi, they had no choice but to dive apart. The reek followed Lionheart, and he had to slash wildly to fend it off. He did manage to drive it back, but was butted and lost his lightsaber in the process. He came up facing the reek, and figured that he could outmaneuver it to get his weapon back easily enough, but then an armored rocket-man flew down in his path, blaster leveled. Lionheart reached out with the Force and brought his lightsaber flying to his hand, moving like lightning to parry Roman's first shot. With the second shot, Lionheart was more in control, and his parry sent the bolt right back at the bounty hunter. But Roman was already in motion, diving sidelong and coming around ready to launch a series of shots the Jedi's way.
"Is this guy suicidal?", Mercury questioned.
"Not really. Roman in this universe had killed numerous Jedi in the past and that is where Cinder recruited him to become her personal assassin, one of his targets being Senator Summer Rose", Aeralyn explained.
"But", Flit cut in. "Lionheart is the second-most powerful member of the Jedi Order, having used both the light and dark to enhance his skill. And his skill is not to be underestimated, only surpassed by the Grand Master of the Jedi Order", he exclaimed.
"Who is it?", Jaune asked.
"You'll know", Flit simply said as they focused back at the screen.
The man was good, Lionheart had to admit. Very good, and more than once the Jedi had to parry desperately to turn a bolt aside. He kept up his offensive flurry, though, keeping Roman on the defensive with sudden stabs and slashing cuts. One misstep... And then it happened, all of a sudden. Lionheart started to slash to the left, cut it short and stabbed straight out, then reversed his grip and sent the lightsaber slashing across, left to right. He spun a complete circuit, coming around to parry a blaster shot, but there was no shot forthcoming. That left to right reversal had cleanly landed. Roman Fett's head flew free of his shoulders and fell out of his helmet, to settle in the dirt.
"Ouch...", Roman grimaced as he saw his alternate self be decapitated. Neo scooted closer, not wanting to imagine the real Roman to meet the same fate.
"Dang...guy was pretty good", Qrow admitted at Roman's skill.
"It may be for the best though", Taiyang said.
That larger fight seemed far from won, and far from winnable. Lionheart had finished with Roman Fett by then, and to the other side, Taiyang and Summer continued their perfect teamwork behind the overturned execution cart. Taiyang turned all shots aimed at either of them, and Summer picked off droid after droid. But even with that, even with all of the remaining Jedi fighting brilliantly in the arena, the droids continued to press in, herding them all together in a hopeless position.
"Oh man, they're on the ropes", Sun grimmly said.
Everyone agreed to the statement on the current situation of the Jedi. The students likewise were becoming agitated as they fell one by one.
"Penny, what are you doing here?" Klein asked when his little friend rolled past his trapped body. In response, P3-N1 fired a suction cup grapnel from a compartment, attaching it firmly to Klein's head.
"Wait!" Klein cried as P3-N1 began to tug. "No! How dare you? You're pulling too hard! Stop dragging me, you leadhead!" He felt the sparking as his head tore free of the Battle Droid body, and then P3-N1 pulled Klein's head over to its rightful body. P3-N1 extracted his welding arm and began reattaching the protocol droid's head. "Penny, be careful! You might burn my circuits. Are you sure my head's on straight?"
Everyone again snickered at the two droid's at the screen.
More Jedi went down under the sheer weight of the laser barrage. Less than half of them were still standing. "Limited choices," Bartholomew Oobleck said to the exhausted and bloody Leonardo Lionheart. Soon they were down to just over twenty, all herded together, and in the stadium all about them stood rank after rank of battle droid, weapons leveled. And then all movement stopped suddenly."Master Lionheart!" Countess Cinder cried from the dignitary box. Her expression showed that he had truly enjoyed the spectacle of the battle. "You have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the Archives of the Jedi. Now it is finished." She paused and looked all about, leading the gazes of the trapped Jedi to the rows and rows of enemies still poised to destroy them."Surrender," Cinder ordered, "and your lives will be spared."
"Why am I giving them the option to surrender?", Cinder questioned, also curious the fact that her alternate self once had a close connection to the Jedi.
"Before you became the Leader of the CIS, you were once part of the Jedi Order, apprenticed to the Grand Master himself and you were a Master yourself before, where your apprentice was also the Master of Qrow Branwen in this universe", Flit explained to her.
"But unfortunately, you became disillusioned of the Jedi because of their errors. The death of your apprentice was the last straw, that you left the order and was subsequently taken as the apprentice of Darth Sidious", Aeralyn exclaimed.
Ozpin and Glynda lowered their heads, recalling several times where their students or individuals turned against them because of their errors. One particular example was their failure in helping Gretchen, the sister of Hazel, which caused the man to resent and eventually hate Beacon for what they did.
"We will not become hostages for you to use as barter, Cinder," Leonardo said without the slightest hesitation.
"Then I'm sorry, old friend," Countess Cinder said in a remorseful tone. The battle droids readied their weapons as the Jedi stood still, prepared to fight till the very end if necessary. That is until Summer looked up and cried out.
"Look!"
Spectre: Have to end it here. But don't worry! Part Two will come in a few days. Also, check my two-shot, A Spectre's Call, for a quick read if you're an MK fan.