Hey guys! My computer is still broken, so I'm still writing off of my phone. I can't keep the writing up for much longer on my phone, so I'm seriously hoping my computer gets fixed soon so that I can update twice a week again! I'm literally not even done chapter three yet LMAOOO so let's pray that I can write quickly again soon
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. If I did, this rewrite would not be necessary
Chapter Two: The Slave Auction
As Obi-Wan Kenobi, the famed Negotiator, stood in the middle of that arena in the hot sun, he lamented about how he got into this mess. It had all started when he and Rex had found Governor Roshti in that isolated pit, far from the other togrutan slaves. The man had been unable to give them cues about the colonists' whereabouts, so the two soldiers had hitched a ride on a 'borrowed' mount and taken Roshti with them. Unfortunately, a guard had shot the General and togruta passenger right off of the beast's back, and the clone Captain had had to leave them behind, leading to Obi-Wan's capture and newfound role as a slave.
He squinted into the stands, hearing the Zygerrian beside him speak but taking none of it in. He was roughly shoved onto a pedestal and made to kneel, bruising his knees even through the armour they had allowed him to keep on. The Master had been lucky enough that nobody had figured out his identity yet, it would make him a useful bargaining chip in the hands of the Separatists and likely blow his friends' covers. Lowering his head, the Jedi thanked the Force that they were safe.
"I guess I have to save your skin again, old man." Anakin? What was he doing here?
Obi-Wan responded, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
--
Anakin quickly concealed the horror at seeing his friend, his brother, his former Master, enslaved. He could grieve later. Ahsoka seemed to be thinking the same thing, her face impassive as she adopted the submissive look most slaves had. She hated it, she hated the collar on her neck, but it was worth it to save the colonists.
"As a show of your loyalty, whip the Jedi. show your strength, prove that we shall not bow under their oppressive rule!" The Queen's demand only grew in volume with each word. The irony was not lost on the General, and he had to stifle a laugh.
He hesitated to take the offered whip, but his cover could not be blown. As the Knight headed down to the arena where Obi-Wan waited, he knew that he couldn't whip him. Having been on the receiving end of an electrowhip in his youth, he knew how horrible they felt. Anakin was not going to inflict that pain on another person for anything. Kriff the colonists, he would not become the very thing he swore to destroy.
Arriving at the hunched form of his former Master, he said, "I guess I have to save your skin again, old man."
Even behind him, he could almost see the other General smile. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
The Knight looked up into the stands and made eye contact with a disguised Rex, who nodded. Giving an arrogant smile to the Queen and saluting, both for the feline and Ahsoka, Anakin ignited the whip. He heard the hiss and slap of it hitting the ground and shoved down the thought of how he recognized that sound as he swung the weapon. It connected with a nearby guard, drawing cries of alarm from the crowd. The Zygerrian fell as two lightsabers hurtled through the air into the awaiting Jedi's hands. Good ol' Artoo, always dependable. Obi-Wan Force-pushed a guard off the pedestal as his weapon was handed to him. There were probably ten guards in the arena, creating a perimeter.
One of them struck out at the Negotiator in just the right spot, hitting a previous injury. The man went down, lightsaber turning off as it rolled out of his hand. Why did Anakin always have to do the hard work? He fended off three blows with his lightsaber before a well-placed whip strike numbed his hand to the point of dropping the blade, It was just him and the whip now. There were about six guards still standing, and they went at their prey with a renewed vigor. A whip wrapped around his leg, causing him to lose his balance. The General sunk to his knees as a tendril of agony wrapped around his left arm. The right was soon trapped in it's own electric prison, the glove the Knight always wore protecting the prosthetic limb. He groaned through his teeth as another lightning-hot whip lashed around his leg. The man was on his knees, struggling against the pain as the remaining two guards wrapped their whips around his neck. He screamed at that, convulsing under the energy for another moment before going completely still, unconscious.
--
Rex was standing in a shadowed area of the arena, watching Genral Kenobi with rapt attention. He was willing to guess that the slavers hadn't figured out his identity yet, seeing as the famed Negotiator was only introduced as a Jedi. The Captain shuddered to think of what the Seppies could do with such a good bargaining chip.
The clone was posing as a guard, having disposed of the Zygerrian who was meant to be in this spot. He was really hoping Skywalker had a plan, because it wouldn't be very productive for General Kenobi to be sold into slavery. It would actually be quite productive to crash this auction, find the colonists, and get the kriff out of this wretched system.
Rex thought that it might be his lucky day as he saw Anakin walking out to the pedestal Kenobi was on. He knew that the General would never harm his former Master, meaning that the Knight clearly had some scheme. When he saluted the Queen and Artoo opened a compartment, the Captain knew that it was go time. He shot the two guards nearest to him just as Skywalker struck a guard with a whip likely meant to be used on the former prisoner, and took a sniping position.
Zygerrian blasters were definitely better for this task than his DC-17 blaster pistols. He took out two guard opposite him in the stands before a lucky shot from some slaver got his shoulder. The clone cried out in pain and grabbed the wound, glad that it was at least cauterized. He cursed in mando'a, chastising himself. He should have seen that coming, anticipating enemy fire. He looked behind him and saw a few Zygerrian guards who had caught on to the impostor and were running to take him down.
Rex smiled grimly and took aim, taking out a guard before the rest stopped running and all aimed at the Captain. Kriff. He barely had time to duck before a stunner hit him square in the face, knocking him out cold.
--
Ahsoka watched her Master emerge into the arena with fear. Would he whip Master Kenobi or blow their covers? She didn't know which option she preferred. Seeing him salute, however, was all the confirmation she needed. The togruta gave Artoo a discrete nod, glad the Queen was transfixed with watching Anakin take his place behind Obi-Wan.
As the General raised his whip, Artoo opened a compartment on his body and shot two lightsabers into the pit. The crowd was in an uproar as the supposed slaver attacked their allies. Seizing the distraction, the Commander snatched one of her own lightsabers from the droid and ignited it, quickly deflecting blaster bolts back at the two guards who had fired them. Holding the weapon at the Queen's throat, she said, "It seems your slave empire is at an end, your Highness." She sneered, and the Zygerrian woman looked outraged.
"Get that thing out of my face, you little skug!" With that, she quickly pressed a button on the arm of her throne, causing the collar around the padawan's neck to shoot sparks.
Ahsoka screamed in pain as the metal collar electrocuted her, shooting pure agony through her body. Convulsing, she dropped her now extinguished lightsaber as she, too, crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
The Queen turned back to the arena as Lars Quell exposed himself as a Jedi, single-handedly fending off her guards. She watched with rapt attention as he was caught up in the whips, grunting in pain. "Such determination!"
The man finally became unconscious with a scream when he was caught in the neck, slumping to the arena floor. What was she going to do with these intruders?
--
Anakin blinked his eyes open, feeling a soreness in his muscles. He hissed at the feeling of burns on his neck, trying to take in his surroundings. This was difficult with his dizziness, but he was able to feel a soft material beneath him, cool air around, and see an ornate room. He could also feel… hands?
The General sat up sharply, scrambling away from the touch of the Queen. She had been holding him, one hand on his stomach dangerously close to his lower areas, another up on his chest, probably having been feeling him up. She was laying back on what he now realized was a bed, feeling dirtier than that time he had rolled through a swamp.
The Zygerrian woman got up on all fours and said, "Come back! I don't bite… unless you like that." She gave him a flirtatious grin and started crawling nearer. He reacted out of instinct and held up his hand, closing in into a fist. The Queen rose into the air, choking. Her face turned from flirtatious to scared as she gasped out, "If you hurt me… you hurt- you hurt your friends!"
The Knight released the slaver with a snarl, getting off the bed. He wanted to pummel the smug cat into a pulp, along with her slave empire, but the thought of Obi-Wan, of his padawan, hurting wasn't worth it.
The Queen recovered quickly, sitting primly on the bed. "If you do not wish to accept my gracious offer of a bed to sleep in, you may rest on the floor. You have ruined my slave auction, and a price must be paid for it. I was thinking of hurting you, but that face is too pretty to scar." Anakin was thankful for that until he realized that she still wanted someone hurt. "I believe the beautiful togruta, the so-called slave, will do to be punished. Tell me, Lars, did you even meet Bruno Dentourri?"
The General did not want Ahsoka hurt, but any attempt to negotiate with or resist the Queen would likely be met with more pain for his padawan. He decided to answer, "Yes. I did kill him. He was vile, a slaver! Your empire deserves to rot."
She laughed, a low sound. "The Jedi are the ones that deserve to rot. You serve a corrupt senate and are all slaves of the Republic!"
Anakin was offended by that. The Jedi had saved him from slavery! He knew that their rules were ridiculous and stifling, but they were better than these Zygerrian scum! He would just have to prove the Queen wrong.
--
Ahsoka sat quietly in a cage dangling over the edge of the palace, trying to meditate. That was a little difficult, however, in the presence of Atai Molec. He was the Zygerrian who had led them through the palace, and he was now the Zygerrian who was promised the young Jedi as his new slave.
"The Queen has promised you to me once the rest of your friends are dealt with, skug. There are so many things that I'm going to do to you, and you'll like them."
The togruta tried to ignore him and sink into the Force, a reassuring presence even without meditation. She needed a distraction from Atai's foul words, the phrases making her feel dirty and violated even without actions to back them up.
"I hear that togruta like their head-tails touched. I think we'll start there."
His words were really starting to wear on her. Using the Force, she decided to give him a warning. The padawan pushed him off the balcony, leaving close enough to grab on and survive. "You don't want to do that."
He snarled and regained his footing. "Little skug!"
Suddenly, her collar electrified as he pressed a button on his belt. The slaver smiled as the teen screamed, grabbing her throat to make the pain stop. It felt like bolts of heat stabbing her, electrifying her veins, an agonizing sensation. She gasped for air when it ended, locking pained eyes on her torturer.
Ahsoka screamed again at the electricity, arching her back. She wondered how many people in the market below could hear her cries, even as most of her focused on the searing collar around her neck, she needed it off-
The electricity stopped. Molec sneered as he leaned a bit closer to her cage, "It would do you well to behave. Otherwise, the punishment will be far more severe."
The Commander shuddered and closed her eyes again, trying to ignore the new fear creeping through her veins.
--
Obi-Wan awoke in a room of stone, the cold creeping into his bones. He groaned and grabbed his abdomen, it really hurt from both a huge bruise and a burn from the electrowhip. It was clear from his surroundings that Anakin had not succeeded in fighting off the guards after he went down. A shame, really, but there was still hope for Rex and Ahsoka. The General prayed those two had fared a bit better than him, but something told him that was unlikely.
The Negotiator, though still anonymous to his furred foes, had been outfitted with a nice new shock collar. He knew it was a shock collar because he had seen it in action before, he had absolutely no intentions of necessitating it's use without cause.
He sat up and propped himself against the wall. This cell was quite different from the one they had found Governor Roshti in. It had a ceiling of stone, and one wall was a rayshield. There was, of course, a tiny little room sealed off with a door on the opposite of the rayshield, so Obi-Wan couldn't see out into the hallway or whatever laid outside this dismal room. It was dimly lit by a light embedded in the ceiling outside the rayshield, so the brightness was mottled by the orange wall of energy. It was really quite different from the pits outside, the only similarity being stone.
The Master decided to meditate. The collar around his neck didn't restrict his use of the Force, and the flowing tide of what could only really be described as life itself was a balm he needed right now. It was lonely in the cold, dark cell, and he was bored. The General definitely had more patience than Anakin, but that didn't mean he enjoyed sitting in a dank room with only himself and some dust motes for company. Reaching into himself, he sunk into meditation, freeing his mind from the confines of the cell. Obi-Wan was able to tell that he was barely underground, the fertile Zygerrian soil not being incredibly thick over him. By sensing which parts of the area around him were hollow, the Jedi was able to get a feel of the layout. There were three sectors, each containing ten cells. As of now, there were about five cells, including his, that were occupied. Three were holding slaves of the stubborn and rebellious nature, new to this oppressive life and still with hope, the fourth holding… Rex?
Frowning in his corporeal body, the man gave more of his consciousness to meditation, reaching inside the room containing the clone Captain. He was asleep, a shock collar outfitting his neck as well, and there was a bandaged wound on his shoulder. Nore probing revealed the ebbing signature of a bacta patch, the medical supplies doing good work of healing the blaster wound.
Obi-Wan withdrew from his friend's cell and focused on the living and cosmic Force, lulling himslef into a steady rhythm of peace. Anakin had better hurry up and save their shebs.
--
Rex was up and pacing in his cell, already searching it for weaknesses. The structure seemed to be fairly sound, with there being no visible holes in the rayshield. He had tried multiple times to buckle it with pure force and had only succeeded in numbing his left shouler and arm. He had resigned himself to pacing and small exercises to pass the time in this cell, but it but fate would have it that he wouldn't be alone for much longer.
The Captain snapped his head up, looking at the door. Someone was coming. He took a fighting stance, keeping low and balanced, and waited until the door clanged open, revealing Ahsoka. So she hadn't succeeded in her fight, either. Too bad.
Behind the togruta was a Zygerrian guard, and by the way she grimaced as she was bodily moved into the room, they weren't being gentle. He noticed with no small amount of anger that the slaver had one hand on her waist, with the other on her back lek. When he got out of this place, that scum would be his first kill.
Rex grunted in pain as a quick shock sent him to his knees and his Commander was thrown into the cell next to him. He scrambled to his feet to kill the shabuir who had harmed his vod'ika, but he had already departed and put the rayshield back up. The padawan looked up at him, checking if he was okay, and he waved her off. A little electricity was something he could handle.
Ahsoka slumped in the corner of the wretched stone room, rubbing her back lek. The guard's touch on it had not been gentle, and it was a sensitive area. She knew he had grabbed it because it was such an intimate spot, and the chevrons that adorned it were a darker colour than usual in her anger. This kriffing mission sucked.
Her waist where she had been held felt dirty, as though the Zygerrian's touch had marred it with grime. She could already feel bruises forming there and her back lek, and she knew that if Rex saw them, there would be no stopping him from beating that rayshield until it caved. He was insanely protective of her and her with him, and they were like siblings. He was her ori'vod, even if she was technically older.
Rex slumped down next to her, and they sat in silence until, "So, Commander, what did you do to get sent here? Based on you not arriving in my humble abode for a decent amount of time, I'd say you were somewhere else until now. What happened?"
She was silent for a moment, considering his words. When she finally spoke, it was quiet. "When I woke up after being knocked unconscious by this crinking collar, I was in this cage. It hung over the edge of the palace, and it at least gave me a nice view." Her attempt at humor was unsuccessful. Her clone companion was doing his best not to jump in, but they had kept her in a cage- "I tried to meditate, but this slaver- Atai Molec- was there, and he kept saying these horrible things, he kept saying everything he was gonna do to me when 'my friends had been dealt with'. I was scared, Rex. I had absolutely no doubts that this would happen. I finally snapped and pushed him over the ledge with the Force-" good riddance- "But not enough to kill him." Oh. Too bad. "I let him live, and he said I would pay for my insubordination. He shocked me so much, it really hurt… Then they took the cage inside the palace before escorting me to this cell. I guess they don't trust me outside anymore."
The Captain sat in silence for a while, digesting this story. He was goung to murder every singe Zygerrian on this planet, perhaps sparing the children, and it would barely be enough to make up for all the pain that they've caused. He knew when this mission began that the men especially would not be good to his vod'ika, but it didn't stop him from being mad.
Ahsoka leaned her head back against the wall, relishing the cold after hours under the sun. Her Master had better rescue them with one of his stupid plans soon.
--
Anakin was sitting on the hard-backed chair that accompanied the room he was in, and stared the Queen in the face. The room really wasn't that bad, with beige walls, a chair (that he was using), a transparisteel wall with some holes and basically a second room on the other side. Said room held a few Zygerrian guards, a plush throne and the Queen herself, occupying said piece of furniture.
She wanted to know the Knight's real name, he had said Lars Quell. She didn't believe him, which was reasonable. But after a few minutes of this back-and-forth, it was getting tiring. The slaver finally gave up on being nice. "Well, I suppose if you won't tell me, some encouragement would be useful."
The General was confused for a moment, and then a guard brought forth a holotransmitter. Turning it on, he revealed two images, Ahsoka and Rex, and Obi-Wan. The Queen gloated, "If you refuse to tell me your name, Lars, your friends will suffer. I would also like to know their identities, especially that feisty togruta."
His eyes narrowed, glaring at his captor, and she just sighed and pressed a button on the chair. Immediately there was an influx of movement on the holograph, all three of Anakin's friends were writhing, having been caught completely unawares by the electric shocks now being generated by their collars. He stared as his padawan opened her mouth in a silent scream, face contorted in pain. Rex and Obi-Wan were a little bit better at controlling their expressions, gritting their teeth and holding something, whether it be their own clothes or a kneecap, to get through the pain. Unable to watch anymore, the General gave in. "Okay! My name is Anakin."
The Queen stopped the shocks, everyone in the holo showing visible relief, but her hand still hovered over the button. "Full name?"
He gritted his teeth, but he would tell her his name if it meant his friends didn't suffer. "Anakin Skywalker."
She looked intrigued, giving him a once-over that was not appreciated. "The hero with no fear! My, you are quite a prize! But who are your companions? I would truly love to know."
The Knight looked down, saying, "The girl is Ahsoka Tano, and the men are Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Rex of the 501st battalion."
The feline slaver was quite happy at this news. "Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Hero with no Fear! My my, you have proven quite resourceful, Skywalker. I have a proposition for you. You can be my bodyguard, accompany me on most daily tasks, or your friends suffer and you join them."
He snorted. "Not much of a choice, your Highness."
She laughed, the flirtatious sound grating on her soon-to-be bodyguard's nerves. "Then I assume you have the answer?"
He hated this, having to bow to this slaver scum because of a possible punishment. He had thought he left that life behind when he joined the Jedi Order, but this sleemo had a weird fascination with him and the tools to exploit it. Resigning himself to his fate, he decided, "Yes."
--
Atai bowed to the hologram, lowering his head in respect. When bidden, he rose and said, "The Queen has acquired some very useful prisoners. I had urged her to bring this news to you herself, but she has refused, leaving me to be the messenger. She has uncovered three Jedi and a clone, likely attempting to disrupt our prosperous slave market, and they have revealed their identities to be quite important."
The hologram seemed bored, Jedi were fairly commonplace in the war. He questioned, "Who are these Jedi?"
The Zygerrian allowed himself a smile, saying, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and a pretty little togruta."
The man in the hologram did not let his shock show, eyebrows barely twitching in his masked surprise. "I shall come for a visit immediately. I would like to see these prisoners myself."
And with that, Count Dooku turned off the hologram and ordered for his shuttle to be readied.
End of chapter!
Notes:
-ooh a cliffhanger hehehe
-Anakin just went "fuck it im going all in on this"
-Ahsoka is tired of Molec's bullshit and he's tired of hers
-All the meditation sequences I do are vaguely based on one in the Ahsoka novel and my own interpretation of what you can do with Force meditation
-The Queen is a little pervert BEGONE THOT
-Rex: overprotective brother mode ACTIVATED
-The Queen has realized that Anakin will do almost anything for his friends and is USING THAT
Tune in next week for Chapter Three!