Happy Bastille day! In belated honor of Obitineweek'20 I decided to update this story. I apologize to the readers for the long wait.
"Cut the cord! Cut it!"
"You'll pay for everything, filthy felines..."
"Let's crush them!"
The initial group of about 30 hardy, unabated captives had grown to 50, then to 70, then to over 100 and counting, thanks to the Zygerrians' brutality in response to the insurgents' fervor. Apparently, all it took for most desperate slaves to jump aboard the self-proclaimed rebellion's carriage was a figurative fuse to be lit, and a leader to follow. Now, they had plenty of both.
A slave can no longer be such once their mind is set free. Among the captives, fewer and fewer showed willingness to comply.
The Zygerrian slavers had tried repressing the rogue insurgents after a preliminary ambush - a rain of rocks and stones specifically targeting the big felines' communication devices, mired at isolating them. As a form of retaliation, the slavers had picked a few random children, wanting to abuse the poor prisoners into obedience by hanging their young, thus inaugurating the freshly installed gallows, but all this gruesome act elicited was an even more violent wave of protest. Outnumbered, not even their electro-whips were enough to maintain order anymore. The prisoners had managed to literally stomp a couple of guards to death, proceeding to pillage and dismantle the gallows, using pieces of iron, wood and rope to defend themselves. Some of them had set pieces of wood on fire, others were throwing unconscious Zygerrian slavers into the holes they'd spent days digging before shoveling dirt and loam back on them, seizing their weapons and destroying their own chains. The rawness of their sentiments was real, and the slavers of Grebak were reaping what they had sown for a long time.
While this happened, Obi-Wan, accompanied by a numerous group of unpolished brutal fighters, was reverting to his role of general once again, a surge of adrenaline pounding through his bloodstream, granting him vigor. His aim was getting through the scarcely guarded fortress' entrance, a feat that appeared more and more plausible after they had cut the ropes holding the drawbridge. Getting in, though, required almost as much negotiation as it did physical fighting, as the members of the Zygerrian Planetary Guard and other mercenary soldiers stuck inside were scarcely equipped to fully quash the masses of protesters who were readying themselves to annihilate them, but they also possessed enough weaponry to shoot many of them dead. In fact, they had already done so. One sure could count on Zygerrians being remorseless.
Ducking and dodging blaster shots, cutting the chains holding a drawbridge, abducting enemies, were all tasks that required a significant amount of effort without the aid of the Force. But Obi-Wan could count on brains and language to be on his side. He, alongside a Zygerrian insurged prisoner, a large brown catlike sentient named Corio, had managed to trick the Head of the Guard into walking straight in their trap, therefore abducting him and using his capture to blackmail the ones left inside into letting them in.
"Call reinforcements!" the head guard had screamed before being sucked in by the angry crowd.
"What, gentlemen? Are you completely sure notifying the superiors of your incompetence would be a good idea? After all, these are just a bunch of hapless slaves, aren't they?" Obi-Wan taunted them, soliciting worried looks exchanges from the guards and mercenaries.
Eventually, the convincing methods worked, as the mercenaries abandoned the fortress, Outer-Rim bound, after Obi-Wan questioned them about the fairness of the pay they received and gave them a couple of "Imperial spoilers". Their number reduced to the bone, having lost all external support, the Guardians were left with no choice but to let their opponents in.
Just in time, Obi-Wan thought, glancing at the unorganized mass of insurgents behind his back and counting their losses, which amounted to a hefty one fifth of the total. Fighting was bound to be ongoing inside the fortress walls as well, but he nonetheless managed to find a crowbar, which he used to break free of his force-suppressor, with some help from Corio.
Finally – he said, feeling immediate relief and experiencing one of the best sensations life could offer. It was as if all the colors had reverted to a black and white world. Thus, he found himself smiling, as a reflexive instinct. The next step would be to recover his lightsaber.
Picking up an uncivilized blaster from the ground, ignoring his achy body parts as he'd done on countless Clone Wars battlefields, he joined in back on the fighting, thoroughly satisfied of the result they'd obtained so far.
However, his relief didn't last long, as soon a dark, overwhelming presence filled the entire atmosphere. Obi-Wan couldn't avoid gasping, as he realized the undeniable, fatalistic connection he shared with this overbearing, eerily familiar predator.
A spaceship landed not far from the newly seized fortress, raising clouds of thick dust.
Nothing good was bound to walk out of it.
"Never a joy" Obi-Wan commented.
During her interminable journey, Satine had lucidly and rationally played several possible scenarios in her head. Despite propending for a stealthy, furtive approach to reach her goal, given the undisputable fact that she was one and alone, she had nonetheless factored in possible complications to her plan, which all but demanded that she set some of her life principles aside. She wondered whether she'd need to blast her way through an army of Zygerrians, stun electro-whip-brandishing slavers, devise a diversion to distract countless guards before reaching Obi-Wan and find a way to break any eventual chain without severing his limbs, just to mention a few. She strived for an optimized risk-benefit balance in her decision-making process on the field and prayed that she wouldn't be forced to take anyone's life.
Reservations aside, she was mentally prepared for everything... or so she thought, because, once the spaceship actually reached its destination and started hovering over Grebak's wastelands, she realized nothing could have prepared her for the scene of utter chaos that was extending before her eyes.
She had a feeling Obi-Wan, or at least some other Jedi, had something to do with it.
She landed, parking on top of a hill of dirt, and was immediately welcomed by a rain of rocks that hit the portholes. Activating the ship's defense shields not to compromise the only transport available to her, she crawled her way out before her brain had time to process everything and oppose what she had trained herself to do in the past few days. If anything, she owed it to Mara Jade, whom she had left behind.
Not many moments passed before she was spotted, her shiny blue and grey beskar'gam a striking feature among all the muddy silhouettes peppering the wasteland. In the general confusion, as she saw herself targeted by slavers and riotous slaves alike, she realized she ought to step up and take a stance to signal her loyalty to a faction, so she threw a hand grenade at the side of the hill where Zygerrian opponents retreated themselves. A blast soon followed this bewildering action. Now that all eyes were on her, in a rare general pause of deafening silence after the noise, she took a moment to observe the prisoners surrounding her. There seemingly weren't any Jedi around, she noticed with a worried pang.
"I am here to help" she composedly told the enslaved rioters, figuring that helping others first would be instrumental in helping Obi-Wan, who clearly wasn't in her immediate proximity.
Soon the Zygerrian slavers responded to the offence with their blasters, prompting her to move away from her spot.
As she was running, Satine saw two young, scrawny, black-furred Zygerrian girls scrambling for a hideout, and was instantly reminded of Cressidra's dream of bringing her family to safety. Admitting that Dooku's spaceship was spacious enough to carry twenty people or so, she lunged forward, catching their attention by calling them. The oldest appeared to be understanding Galactic Basic a bit, but when Satine asked her if they wished to leave the planet in her spaceship once she'd be done with her mission, she declined, as she and her younger sister were looking for their displaced family. Satine hadn't anticipated that helping destitute slave younglings would become a priority in her Jedi-rescuing mission, but as usual reality was a much different matter than theory.
"Where do you think your family may be?" Satine politely asked the girls.
"There" the oldest pointed.
Satine's gaze followed the girl's finger, seeing the seized fortress for the first time. A strange, prophetic sense of foreboding dawned on her.
"All right, girls. Let's go look for your family" her words had a comforting effect on the girls, who were now eager to trot forward.
Along the way, Satine and the girls added four cane-brandishing rioters – also looking for family or friends – to their team, as well as an elderly Zygerrian lady, an angry nautolean teenager and a togruta toddler, who seemed to have lost his way. They all put their hopes into Satine's armor, which acted as the glue that held the group together. The former Duchess understood that the increased responsibility that derived from being recognized as a leader was actually beneficial to her cause, as it was readying herself to face any challenge more than any fear-stricken, self-centered approach ever could. Now, with people relying on her, she was giving her all to the mission, and giving her all to the mission could spell the difference between failure and success, between life and death. Never again had she thought she could be so thankful to a beskar'gam, yet it was happening. It enabled virtue to multiply.
Right as the impromptu crew advanced towards the fortress, a strange, a butterfly shaped starfighter swiftly descended from the sky, landing right next to it. The scene was disquieting, on top of exerting a sort of ethereal mystic attraction over Satine.
"Let's go see what's happening" she said, deciding to ignore a shiver running up her spine.
Kenobi was disappointed. So soon after having seized the fortress, he was seeing himself forced to leave it. With the dark, overbearing presence looming ever closer, he did not want to endanger the insurgents, those people were already unfortunate enough as they were.
An impending feeling of generalized doom lingering, he started running, desperately trying to reach the drawbridge and get out into the wastelands, giving way to the urge to get lost somewhere. Where, he didn't really know, but he realized it didn't make much difference. It wasn't like he had a transport to leave the planet, after all.
However, Obi-Wan wasn't left wondering for too long, as the disconcerting figure of his one and only apprentice soon materialized right before him.
Yellow eyes. This was like discovering your grandma is a serial killer, or your adolescent son started sniffing cocaine behind your back. Come think of it, Anakin had never fully stopped acting like a teenager.
"Yellow has never suited you" Obi-Wan attempted, bracing himself for an epic Sith tantrum.
"SHUT UP! How dare you..."
"...dare what, Anakin? Comment on the obvious just so that I could... ah, reason with you?" he was surprised at the sarcastically emboldened tone of his own voice, but he figured that was to be expected after days of brutal Zygerrian captivity. He had gained lucidity, in spite of having lost strength.
Vader predictably let out a beastly screech, before flashing his new red lightsaber on.
Kenobi rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh, having forgotten for a moment where they were.
"Anakin, now, that's not very gentlemanly of you… I don't have mine here with me!"
"You're beginning to lose it, old fool!" Vader roared, flapping his black cape around to reveal the familiar handle of a weapon
"Indeed, only the fool read the world through the lenses of their mood" Kenobi bit back.
"You're in luck today" Vader spouted, throwing his old Master's lightsaber in the air. It made a perfect parable and fell right between Obi-Wan's hands. The older Jedi looked at it, understanding what it meant. Here they were, at a crossroads there was potentially no turning back from. He shook his head, feeling the weight of the entire situation on his shoulders.
"Are you really going down this road, Anakin?"
Vader let out a sadistic laugh, his yellow orbs bulging more than ever.
"Isn't it ironic that it would be you insinuating that?"
Obi-Wan was confident the troubled youngster had completely lost his mind by now.
In the meantime, the peculiarity of their exchanges had attracted a modest audience of belligerent yet uncertain slaves. To which Vader seemed totally oblivious.
"I am honestly confused, Anakin" the Jedi Master attempted, sensing the young man's mounting hostility "Last time I checked, I didn't think of destroying my brothers and sisters' lives out of pure selfish wrath…"
"FILTHY TRAITOR!" Vader shrieked in a fit, losing all control over his unreliable temper and hurling himself at Obi-Wan with deadly force while twirling his red saber. The latter dodged him by a hair's breadth, internally sighing and summoning all his might to face an inevitable circus of crazy. He was debilitated, and Vader was strong and powerful, but he had been the one to train the young one in the forms of saber combat, after all.
"Anakin, please, be reasonable" Obi-Wan was realizing that finding himself under tyranny had made him more merciful. And patient. "This can't be what you want!"
For some reason, this seemed to set Vader off.
"But you know all too well what you want, don't you Obi-Wan?!"
Once again, Kenobi spun just in time to deflect a blow from his possessed former apprentice, asking the Force to support him. He was taken aback by Anakin's emotional turmoil, which he couldn't really pinpoint.
"Come on, Anakin. Quit it" he implored, searching the Sith's eyes with his own.
"You always downplay my feelings, when it's convenient for you!" Vader seethed "But now nothing will stand in the way of our confrontation…"
Obi-Wan was concentrating hard. He was reluctant to fight Vader, he knew there was more to the story than the blind rage permeating his Force signature, as he desperately attempted deciphering the fallen Jedi's thoughts through a strained, painful connection. Anakin might have had his faults, but he had been played a masterful number. Obi-Wan acknowledged the underlying humanity trapped behind the two approaching yellow orbs, tightening his grip on the lightsaber almost as if by doing so he could compensate the lack of control over what was unraveling, realizing how everything felt wrong, so very wrong. He took deep breaths in, searching deep within the Force, looking for something, anything that could help him understand.
And then he felt it. He felt the presence. Her presence.
Obi-Wan gaped, staring at a vacuous distance despite Vader striding towards him.
Then, he did something totally unexpected. He turned his back on Vader, turned his back on a situation that offered no resolutions. He started running towards her, choosing to follow his instinct and an all-encompassing calling from the Force.
"Wha- COME BACK HERE! I was right… you are a coward!" Vader yelled, standing still on the spot, bewildered at his Master's abrupt departure.
He was fuming, Obi-Wan had never shied away from a duel before.
However, Obi-Wan's swift change of attitude hadn't escaped his excellent Force-sensitivity. Vader was as much curious as he was furious.
"You can't run from me!"
When Satine reached the fortress, accompanied by the bunch of insurgents and the two Zygerrian slave girls, there was much fighting going on inside and around the building.
As they set foot on the drawbridge, though, they were welcomed by a rain of flaming arrows from the sky.
"Watch out!" Satine yelled, lunging forward to push one of the girls to the side.
The slavers were obviously angry about the mutiny, and thirsty for revenge.
A large catlike insurgent spotted them from indoors, immediately coming to their rescue with a blaster. Unexpectedly, the younger of the Zygerrian girls seemed to recognize him.
"Uncle Corio!" she squealed, waving thin arms to catch his attention. The large insurgent's serious mouth turned into a broad smile as he saw her, hurrying to shield her under his strong arms, much to Satine's inner relief. It was these droplets of good amid the sorrow, like daisies in a minefield, that gave everyone strength to carry on.
Ducking and leaping, the small group carefully made its way inside the fortress, where heaps of sentients were amassed, attempting to push back the fewer yet better equipped Zygerrian slavers.
The newcomers were immediately plunged into the heat of the conflict, but all decided to stick by Satine and her shiny armor, nonetheless. As she got acquainted with the structure of the fortress, Satine realized that, given how chaotic the situation was, her spaceship's parking site was too distant for a successful evacuation strategy to be put in place, and chances were she wouldn't make it by herself. When asked, Corio had confirmed the presence of skilled insurgents among their ranks, which made Satine believe she was getting closer to the core of her mission.
Corio appeared to be some sort of grassroots leader, hurrying to help set up traps and devise strategies left and right. Getting a daring yet necessary idea, Satine approached him, telling him about the spaceship.
"It's got cannons" she persuaded, inwardly cringing. "You can fly it here, so that we can attack the fortress, and leave this planet afterwards. You can bring your nieces to safety and help many others do the same. You know it's only a matter of time before their reinforcements arrive". Corio seemed convinced, so he dashed to retrieve the spaceship where Satine had instructed him to.
With Corio gone, things seemed to degenerate quicker for the rioters. Without any forewarning, a heavy transport driven by two Zygerrian guards suddenly entered the open-air courtyard, hurling itself with deadly force against anyone and anything, wrecking brick columns and slaughtering insurgents at its passage.
Thinking quickly, Satine turned around, extracted a grenade from her holster and threw it at the moving transport as hard as she could. There was a strong blast afterwards, followed by flying scraps of blazing metal.
As she stood between a bunch of sentients and the smoky remnants of the vehicle, she was cheered at. Having helped spare the lives of the sufferers of injustice lifted her spirits, as conflicted as she was about having inflicted harm upon living beings herself. It was a contradiction of the fallen worlds she rarely could cope with, but… what choice did she have?
Unbeknownst to anyone, a Zygerrian driver had survived the blast, and was now lusting after Satine's blood, a look of pure hatred in his eyes. He started scurrying the ground, looking for a weapon to exact his revenge.
In the meantime, Obi-Wan Kenobi had finally reached the courtyard, arresting his run mid-staircase, for the first time since abandoning Vader mid-duel.
He saw Satine.
She was there, she really was, standing tall and beautiful. She had to be real and not a mirage, he rationalized as he grabbed his chin and twisted his hair in his hands as his eyes subconsciously filled with tears and his breath got caught in his throat… he had allowed himself to listen to the Force, instead of dismissing it as he would have done in the past, and now hope was concretizing itself before his eyes, finally, after an unending series of horrific events. He would have never dared asking, never dared hoping… and then he saw it. As quickly as his joy had risen from the ashes of multiple griefs, so it came crashing down once again.
Satine in the middle of the courtyard. The sniper reading himself. He was transuding hatred, which was directed at her, the flower of peace and grace. Her life hanging on a thread, once again. Barely noticing Anakin's impending presence behind him, Obi-Wan acted on pure instinct and ran, positioning himself between the sniper and Satine.
With his lightsaber, he deflected three shots, easily neutralizing the vengeful sniper with his own ammo. However, the vehicle explosion had attracted other Zygerrian guards to the site, who rapidly located the Jedi and lost no time simultaneously firing at him. Obi-Wan defeated two out of three guards with his lightsaber but was too close to the third to be allowed enough room for maneuvering, though. Overwhelmed, he used his hand to force deflect a fourth shot but couldn't avoid being hit in the shoulder by a fifth, although he did manage to dampen its impact. Losing focus for half a second of pain was enough to make his adversary gain ground over him. In an instant, the ruthless Zygerrian was on him, attempting to crush his skull with the stock of the blaster, as they fought in a full contact match on the floor.
In the meantime, the blaster shots, resonating through the fortress' walls, had captured Satine's attention. Judging by the insurgents' bewildered expression, she had just dodged a literal bullet. She turned around, pandering to a strange sensation of heat behind her neck. And froze on the spot. She saw the silhouette of a Zygerrian bent over a human captive. Over Obi-Wan. Understanding what was unraveling before her eyes, she covered her mouth with a hand and started running as fast as she could towards the scene of the fight.
Kenobi struggled against his larger adversary, managing to rid him of his blaster, nonetheless. In that very moment, though, the Zygerrian suddenly extracted a huge dagger from the lining of his jacket and pierced the Jedi's side with it, taking advantage of a moment's access to his torso while his arm was still raised from removing the blaster, and his other arm was occupied pushing the adversary's away.
As the blade pierced his flesh, scraping against his ribs, Obi-Wan gasped, squeezing his eyes, smelling the slaver's foul breath on his damp face, as a diabolic snicker erupted from his throat the moment he realized Obi-Wan was losing vigor. The enemy pushed the twisting dagger deeper into his side, before extracting it and savoring the moment he would inflict the lethal blow. The Zygerrian might have thrived on hate, but Obi-Wan still had love permeating the depths of his eyes. A reminder of why he had done what he had just done.
The Zygerrian's sombre triumph was short-lived though, as he was soon stunned unconscious by the armored blonde woman whose life the Jedi held so dear. She knelt right besides Obi-Wan just as he went limp on the floor, a trail of blood leaving his mouth. She noticed the gory dagger lying at his side, internally cursing. They instantly locked eyes, swimming in a sea of emotion.
"Ben!" was all she managed to say as they reversed roles from the last time they'd seen each other, in a cruel twist of fate.
"It was you" he whispered, completely enraptured by her. He had no shame to reveal himself to her at this point.
Everything made sense now: his dreams, his visions, the insistent thoughts… everything converged into a spot where spirit met substance. All the elements that had maintained an obstinate distance between the two of them in the past seemed so trivial now, so insignificant.
"Yes, Ben, it's me" she confirmed, squeezing his hand. How she had missed the feeling of his warm hand in hers. Which was progressively turning cold, much to her horror… she forced herself to look at his side.
"I'm so sorry I came too late" her voice trembled with guilt and fear, as realization painfully hit her.
"No, you didn't" Obi-Wan replied with conviction as he squeezed her hand back, disbelief still clouding his dream-like state of mind. Had it not been for the insistent visions he had of her, he wouldn't have initiated the rebellion of the slaves.
"Ben, why… why did you do it?" was all she managed to say, as she literally put her fingers in his wound to prevent additional blood from gushing out.
He smiled for a moment, acknowledging her goodness.
"All these months, I've lived with the regret of what I could've prevented. I was not going to let that happen again, Satine"
He shook his head slightly, bringing her free hand closer to his chest.
"Never. I'd rather die than live with the regret of not having done anything to stop you from dying… or suffering"
Satine's eyes widened as she began noticing the bruises on his fingers, a sign of the previous days' tortures. His remaining forces seemed to be abandoning him, as his breathing became more and more labored and his face exhibited a strained expression. She was sure had it not been for the brutal treatment the Zygerrians had inflicted, he wouldn't be struggling so much right now. What worried her the most was his haemorrhage, because as much as she was trying to stop the blood from gushing out, she figured the bleeding must also be internal.
"We'll leave this wretched place, Ben. Together. I want us to, I came here to get you, I won't depart without you!"
She noticed he seemed to be listening to her wish, as he fought to stay awake. She hoped he would understand how much it mattered to her.
As the fighting raged on all around them, Satine saw herself forced to drag him behind a pile of bricks, catching the attention of the nautolean teenager and the elderly Zygerrian lady who had followed her from the wasteland. The pair approached her, curiously eyeing Obi-Wan, who was beginning to slip in and out of consciousness.
Minutes later, Corio arrived at the scene piloting Satine's spaceship, wasting no time shooting slavers down and destroying the staircases that led to their chambers. He pointed the largest cannon at the command tower, turning it into dust. After that, the spaceship hovered low above the ground, so that Satine and others could climb in. She carried Obi-Wan in with the help of a rioter. Once the spaceship was filled with more insurgents than it could carry, Corio began hovering up higher, space bound. Many slaves were still on the ground, but everyone hoped they would have a better chance at escaping now that the fortress had sustained considerable damage.
As the spaceship abandoned Zygerria's atmosphere, speeding towards a hyperspace lane, as chaos reigned inside the fortress in ruins, a lone spectator lurked in the shadows, trying to give sense to everything he had just witnessed.
Saying Vader was angry at his old Master for forsaking their duel would be a gross understatement. He had followed an uncharacteristically unruly Obi-Wan with every intention to make him pay. However, the unexpected circumstances that had presented themselves had induced him to reevaluate his next moves. Vader could be consumed with jealousy, but he couldn't deny the raw, desperately authentic feelings Obi-Wan had displayed for the Duchess, as he nobly and unhesitatingly laid down his life for her. Speaking of whom, how had she survived? Was Sidious aware of her being alive? Everything was hazy and confused, and Vader felt tricked. He was baffled, too, as the dramatic scene he'd just witnessed practically contradicted every firm belief he'd held about his Master.
Amid blurred lines and uncertainty, only one thing appeared crystal clear. As he observed Sidious' allies – the Zygerrian slavers – attempting to regroup themselves to tame the weakened hordes of slaves that had rebelled, Vader saw the irony of it all: he was working for an Empire that condoned slavery. In the ragged, anxious rioters he recognized himself.
Boiling with rage – mostly directed at himself – and despising the manipulative yet threatening power Sidious so clearly exerted over him, Vader came out of the shadows, catching the attention of the surviving Zygerrian guards.
"When are the reinforcements coming?" a Zygerrian spitefully asked. Vader studied him. He labeled the murder-smelling feline a lost cause.
Vader turned his lightsaber on, effortlessly terminating all the remaining slavers, pouring out all his repressed fury on them. His aura terrified the rioters, who scrambled to abandon what was left of the fortress.
Vader eventually reached his TIE fighter, his black cloak flapping all around him alongside stormy thoughts.
Sidious would have to be kept in the dark about the slain slavers, he cunningly concluded.
After setting the fortress ruins on fire, Vader left Zygerria, right as local reinforcements reached the site.