"MASTER!" Anakin yelled almost tearfully. Oh Force, please not again.
All four of them began running down the building to the wreckage.
"Obi-wan!" Anakin shouted again.
They finally reached the edge of the wreckage. Anakin began frantically looking through the wreckage for any sign of them, the smoke making it very difficult.
"Piper!" Rats called. "Obi-wan!"
Anakin was just about to call out again but he heard coughing as the faint outline of two people emerged from the smoke.
"Obi-wan! Piper!" Anakin stated he was relieved. He ran up to them. Obi-wan was leaning against Piper. "Master! Are you alright!" Piper handed Obi-wan off to Anakin.
"Oh, Anakin!" Obi-wan coughed. "I'm alright!"
"Oh thank force!" Ahsoka stated but she gazed at Piper. While Obi-wan was covered in dirt and probably had a few scratches Piper seemed just fine. How did you do that? She thought to herself.
Piper looked up at Ahsoka as if she heard that.
Donovan leaned over and squinted, he then pulled his gun out and fired. Everyone turned to just in time see a Cavalry member, who just got shot in the leg, fall to the ground.
A horrified look fell across Piper's face as she saw white foam come out of the man's mouth. "CRAP!" She yelled as she Rats and Donovan ran to him.
"Spit it out!" Piper yelled.
Then the man just creepily smiled.
Piper then with as much force as she could jump on his diaphragm causing him to spit out white foam.
Rats leaned over. "TELL US WHY YOUR HERE!" He yelled.
The man just kept laughing. "You will not stop us." he choked. "We are inevitable…" The man trailed off as he died.
Piper sat back. "Damit!" She stated.
"At least they don't know we are coming." Obi-wan stated.
"Yeah, but it is pretty odd they are here in the first place." Donovan stated.
Piper looked at the sky, the fog had now almost fully departed and the sun had just set. It was turning twilight, nightfall would come soon. "It's fine." she stated. "It's not too much further to the bunker." "Mask on, we are about to come to the inners of the blast zone.
The group walked about another hour until they finally reached the bunker. Once inside the group left their outer clothes in one room and made their way to the other. Since they were all hungry they began to eat some of the rations and iodine drinks that were in the bunker.
"Can you please explain to us the effects of Radiation?" Obi-wan asked.
"I don't think it a topic to discuss while eating," Rats said.
"Oh."
"It starts with nausea like you just ate something bad, but eventually it takes over your whole body and destroys you from the inside making you decompose while still alive." Piper stated.
"So why is there no cure?" Anakin asked.
"Well since it's so dangerous, nobody has been able to study it long enough to learn of a cure." Donovan stated.
"Well I am sure that the republic could discover a cure," Obi-wan stated.
Rats, Piper and Donovan all exchanged glances.
"What?" Obi-wan stated. "We have lots of highly intelligent scientists."
Piper sighed. "It doesn't matter who you are, where you came from there are some things in this universe no one can escape."
The room grew silent for a moment. Everyone glanced in a different direction, thinking.
"So what's it like being a Jedi?" Rats asked, trying to change the subject and maybe lighten the mood. He looked curiously at Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-wan who were sitting on the other side of them.
"Oh well you know," Anakin mumbled. Anakin pondered for a moment. What was it like to be a Jedi? They were in a war right now, so at the moment it felt more like being a general commanding an army and not a peacekeeper, so maybe it wasn't the best thing. At the beginning of the war, he thought that it was a lot of fun, but after watching so many of his men die and almost losing his padawan and Master he was not sure how to answer that because now he wasn't entirely sure what it was like. "Alright… I don't really know how to answer that."
"I hear you can't love. Like, have any kind of partner." Rats asked.
"Well the rule is no attachments." Obi-wan stated.
"Oh so you can love." Rats stated.
"No. It's forbidden." Obi-wan stated.
Anakin looked down, he wasn't ready for this lecture from his old master again, especially since he was doing the exact opposite.
"Why?" Donovan asked.
"Because attachments can lead to the dark side, or rather really bad emotions that can hurt others." Obi-wan stated.
"So you mean post break up stress?" Rats asked.
"Sure, we'll have you gentlemen had partners?" Obi-wan asked.
"Yes, way too many to count." Donovan stated.
"Who are you trying to impress? You had two." Rats stated.
Obi-wan chuckled. "Well how did they go."
"The first one was ehh, she wasn't really my type." Donovan began. "But the second, man it felt like we were meant for each other. I loved her and it was so great."
Rats then began laughing, "Yeah until she left you for an attractive Twei'lk."
Donovan gave Rats a look, "Hey I wasn't that attached to her."
"Dude you cried like a baby!" Rats began laughing. "You wouldn't come out of the shower for hours! You missed work for almost a week."
"Okay, but it freaking hurt! I had my heart broken." Donovan stated. "You have never had a girl cheat on you! It sucks!"
"You see." Obi-wan continued. "You got distracted by your attachment, you had bad emotions that almost hurt yourself and those around you. Your attachment blinded you."
Donovan shrugged.
"The other reason is that it is a duty to protect everyone if we were to come between saving our loved ones and a bunch of innocent people we would have to choose to save the innocents." "With attachments that task would be nearly impossible."
Donovan and Rats both looked at each other as a sour look crossed their faces.
"Oh…." Rats stated.
Obi-wan could see the look of tension. "Is there something wrong."
"Let's just say it's not impossible," Piper stated. "It's just extremely difficult."
Donovon sensing the tension decided to ease it up a bit. "Yeah, there are definitely a bunch of ups and downs to loving someone, but I wouldn't take it back." "It really really sucked, but it made me stronger and it helped me overcome my fear of attachment." "Honestly I don't know how you guys do it. I probably would have secretly gotten married to someone, because I would be so afraid to lose them."
Anakin tightened up.
"But that is what makes you guys Jedi and us police." Rats stated. "Tell us about your war and some crazy adventure you guys have had!"
"Well, we have had plenty of battles," Obi-wan stated.
"There was this one time we saved a slimy little slug so that we could gain access through the outer rim," Ahsoka stated.
"A slug?" Rats asked he looked at Donovan who then spoke up.
"You mean like the Hutts?" Donovan asked.
"You know of the Hutt clan?" Anakin asked.
"Unfortunately," Piper stated sighing, but she had a smirk on her face.
"One of them lived on earth for a while," Rats stated. "Owed a Casio on the Strip, til it got blown up."
"That jackass was never seen again," Piper smirked.
"There was this one time, we were tracking down our enemy, Count Dooku, an ex Jedi." Anakin began. "Who was also a very powerful Sith Lord." "He got captured by a group of drunk pilots."
"It was a very rewarding trip to go see him defeated." Obi-wan smiled.
Ahsoka then began laughing.
"What's so funny Snips?" Anakin asked.
"Are you gonna tell them the rest of the story." She asked.
"Ahhh…." Anakin began.
"Tell us!" Rats asked.
"After they teased Dooku for being outsmarted by pirates," Ahsoka continued. "They went to a party with them and the Pirates spiked their drinks and captured them."
"You guys actually drank with them!" Rats stated.
"It's like lesson 101 to NOT drink alcohol at a party with strangers on a strange planet," Donovan smirked.
"I'm surprised you guys didn't count on them spiking your drinks," Piper smirked.
"We did," Anakin stated. "We actually switched them out."
Ahsoka was still laughing. "And they still got you."
"Hey snips I only had a sip, Obi-wan over here chugged every drink he got!" Anakin got defensive and Ahsoka continued to laugh harder. "And yet they still got you!"
"On one of our most recent adventures, I had to fake my death to save the chancellor," Obi-wan stated.
"It wasn't the best adventure," Anakin grunted at Obi-wan.
"How the heck did you fake your death?" Donovan asked.
"Don't get any ideas Don," Piper told Donovan with a smirk.
"I...would never!" Donovan stated. "But seriously how?"
"Well, I wore a blaster proof vest and took a narcotic that makes one appear dead. Our council hired a bounty hunter and then he shot me off a building."
"And you failed to tell Ahsoka and me about it, so we thought it was real." Anakin chimed in passive-aggressively.
"Your reaction is what made it look real!" Obi-wan stated.
"I could have faked it!" Anakin stated clearly upset.
Obi-wan was about to say something but was cut off by Piper who wanted desperately to know something.
"I'm sorry but how did you know he would hit you in the chest?" Piper asked.
"Well, that is what most bounty hunters on Coruscant aim for," Obi-wan replied.
"Huh. No wonder it's nearly impossible to kill Jedi." Donovan stated.
"Yeah, why would you ever shoot the chest when you're trying to kill someone?" Rats stated.
"Always go for the head!" Donovan started taking a swig of Iodine drink.
"You're lucky you weren't on Sagittaria, sharpshooters are taught to go for the head here," Piper stated.
"That way there is no way someone can come back," Donovan added. "But anyhow what happened?"
"Well, I discussed myself as the bounty hunter and then infiltrated the plan to kidnap him."
"Just kidnap him?" Piper asked. "They weren't like trying to assassinate him?"
"Ahh no," Obi-wan stated. "Why would they do that?"
"So they could, like, win the war?" Donovan added.
"You know I did find that kinda strange," Ahsoka admitted.
"Now that you mention it," Obi-wan began. "That was kinda odd….I… I never considered that."
"What's the Chancellor like?" Rats began.
"Oh, you know a typical, sweet old man. Who is the leader of a Republic? And a good friend." Anakin stated with a nice smile.
"Is he white?" Donovan asked.
"Excuse me?" Obi-wan asked, never heard of this question in his entire life.
"Is he Cockcanion?" Piper repeated the Donovan question.
"You mean his species?" Anakin replied. "He's human."
"No, we figured he was human, we want to know his skin tone." Rats stated. "Like how the Sarge has a darker skin color than Donovan and Piper. She would be considered black and they would be considered white, like you two."
"I have never heard of that kind of question," Ahsoka stated.
"You're lucky then," Piper stated.
"Well, then I guess he would be white," Obi-wan stated.
"Ahhhhh," Donovan grunted. "I don't like this guy."
"What why?" Anakin asked. "Because he is white?"
"Yeah," Donovan stated. "I don't trust old white guys, especially old white guys in power. It's just my rule."
"What do you think you're gonna be when you're old?" Piper stated.
"Yes I know an old white guy, and I hope none of you trust me," Donovan stated. "Especially if I am in power."
"Why is that an issue?" Obi-wan asked.
"Our planet has a history," Piper stated.
"A really really really bad history." Rats stated.
"And the bad stuff all comes because there was some old white guy in power," Donovan stated. "Look I'm sure your Challencelor is great, but all I'm saying is that no one gets to a position of high power without some kind of skeletons in their closet."