Oni: Well that was certainly an interesting trip. It reminded me of when I went to receive my first crystal.
Resist: You almost turned into a popsicle?
Oni: Like I said...it was interesting.
Arthur: It was pretty interesting (daydreaming about Mia).
Resist: Whatever you say loverboy.
Echo: (laughing) Alright well, you folks know the drill. We don't own Star Wars or its characters (Resist starts crying) Yeah, I know (sniffles).
Resist: Due to the fact that Arthur and Oni go from major tension to a not quite well oiled machine, Echo and I decided to go back and do a filler story that takes place between this chapter and the last, so if you haven't read that, I suggest you do before reading this.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Apprehend
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."
Narrator POV
Arthur had returned back from his first major battle with his master several weeks ago, but still couldn't get his mind off the trip to Illum and Mia, even though what he saw was just an illusion. Arthur had finally finished constructing his blue lightsaber again, after working on it non-stop, and had decided to drift off to sleep from exhaustion, and began to dream…
(Dream - Arthur POV)
I was staring down at my hand and realized that I was holding my blue kyber crystal, and as I looked up from my hand and viewed my surroundings, realized that I was in the frozen temple on Illum.
"Arthur!" I heard my name echo through the temple, till it faded away. I started to glance around the temple and found a female figure that I immediately realized was Mia and began to approach her slowly.
"Follow me!" she said as she turned and began running away.
I quickly turned my slow approach into a sprint to try and keep up with her. We took several twists and turns, and I finally managed to catch up to her. She had stopped at the far end of the room we were in and with her finger, motioned me to come near her.
"Mia I want to talk to you, and tell you so many things" I said as I inched closer to her, wanting to give us a chance at having a conversation before I reached her.
"Wait, Arthur," she said and held up her palm, "You must go through there first." I looked over to see her pointing at a small doorway. Only darkness and a foggy haze came from its depths.
I came to the foot of the doorway, but did not go through it like Mia said. Instead I stopped, "What is it?" I asked, the doorway didn't look too inviting.
"Only what you take with you." her voice echoed. I decided to trust in what Mia wanted me to do, so I went through the doorway. As I stepped through the doorway, I could feel all kinds of emotions and I also felt as if my soul was being examined, like how I felt when Mia's electric blue eyes stared deeply into mine.
"What was that?" I asked her, still feeling the after affects the doorway had on myself, but as I searched the room for her, I couldn't see her anywhere. I was looking around the room for her, until I heard a lightsaber activate behind me, and the sound of that dreaded cough. I turned around to see Grievous standing before me with my old blade in his hands.
"We meet again, Youngling," he said, "If you surrender now, I will make your death quick and painless."
"I will take my chances Grievous" I said then charged at him, ready to retrieve my old lightsaber from him. I couldn't deal with all the pain and suffering he might have caused with my blade. I lost count how many times we've locked blades so far, but I wasn't giving up.
Grievous merely laughed and held up my former blade to block my attack. "You won't win this time, child," he said with pride.
"We will see about that." I said, remembering what Master Kao had taught me so far. She has been helping me at honing my skills with a lightsaber and on how to shield my mind so that I don't easily accept the dark side when in battle. As we fought, I began executing moves that Master Kao had been helping me practice and began to gain the upper hand. Grievous came at me with my old lightsaber, but I blocked his attack and began my own quick strikes and each one landed, forcing Grievous to the ground.
"How could you call yourself a Jedi?" Grievous asked as he grunted.
I felt myself lose control and began to hack and chop at Grievous anyway I could think of, not letting up at all. Between my blows, I could hear Grievous grunting and shouting in pain, as I kept striking him with my lightsaber. I was well into giving Grievous my punishment, till I heard Mia's voice echo in my head.
"Arthur," she spoke softly, "You must stop this."
Her voice was calm and soothing, I immediately came to, and realized what I was doing. I immediately stopped and stepped back, while deactivating my lightsaber, focusing on Mia's voice in my head. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain course through my body, originating near my chest, so I looked down to see that Grievous had run my old lightsaber through me, and everything started becoming black.
"Like I said, youngling," the cyborg cackled, "You're no challenge for me. Perhaps Kao should dump you back into the hole you came from. It would save her the pain." I couldn't even respond or do anything about what he said, as I fell to the ground, and blackness overtook my vision.
"It's time to get up, Arthur."
My eyes immediately shot open, and I quickly shot up into a sitting position. Mia was kneeling down next to me, as I looked at her straight in the eyes.
"What the heck just happened?" I asked as I put my hand on my forehead, just now feeling my headache.
"You passed your trial," she said with a smile.
"My what?" I said, slightly raising my voice in surprise, as my eyes widened.
"You fought your demons," Mia said before her smile fell, "But you still have a great many obstacles to overcome. I wish I could be there to guide you."
"You were, I heard you in my head" I said, slightly confused and raising a brow at what she had just said, "You helped me gain control over my feelings."
"I know," her head tilted as she spoke empathetically, "But we must part now. From now on, your journey is your own. Goodbye, Arthur."
Mia stood and turned and started to walk away. "Mia wait" I quickly stood and ran to catch up to her and stuck out my hand and placed on her shoulder, but when I did, Mia's figure shattered like glass, sending me backwards back through the doorway, where I faced Grievous. After going through the doorway, I entered a freefalling state. I felt like I was falling forever, until my back hit the ground hard and I slowly sat up realizing I was in the tunnel where I almost froze to death. I sat there for what seemed like hours, and was shivering uncontrollably. I heard a soft voice echoing my name over and over, as my eyes finally started to shut.
"Arthur! Wake up, please!"
I suddenly awoke and shot straight up. I was covered in sweat and my hands and feet were still shaking from my nightmare. My vision was a little blurry, but I could make out what looked like my master. She shook me a few times, a little rough but I guess she was in a hurry.
"Master?" I asked.
"Arthur! You had me worried," she sighed, "I've been calling you for hours. Don't you remember that we have a mission today?"
"Sorry master, I dozed off and had a nightmare. What's the mission?" I asked. I'm pretty sure she told me before, but I couldn't remember, probably because of the dream, or nightmare more like it.
"Well," she started, "We'll have to head over to the hangar to find out the details. Commander Green is waiting for us."
I stood up, but lost my balance and started to fall, but Master Kao caught me. "Sorry master," I started to say, as I regained my balance, "After you" I finished, and began to follow her to the hanger.
"Are you feeling alright?" she asked with concern, "You look pretty pale. I'm sure if you're not feeling well enough, we could always have another Master take over the mission."
"No, no. It's fine, just had a bad dream is all. It just felt so….real" I said, remembering everything about my dream. "I sure I can handle the mission." I said, taking my hand off my forehead.
"Okay," Kao went back to her calm appearance, "We should get over to the hangar then."
Master Kao and I entered the hangar and started to scan the room for Green. Master Kao pointed out in the distance, so I looked at where she was pointing to see Green waving his hands at us trying to get our attention. Master Kao waved back and we made our way to Green.
"Well, what's our mission, commander?" Master Kao looked over at the clone in green armor and nodded to him. "Well, uh," he stuttered in a nervous fashion, "We've been tasked with the capture of Count Dooku."
Master Kao's eyes never betrayed her stoic face. If she was scared, she couldn't show it. Green continued to go on with all the information he had on our next mission, but I didn't catch any of it, because my mind went back to Mia and the dream. Although she was just an illusion at the temple and shattered to pieces in my dream, it made me think of the real Mia and how much I wanted to see and talk to her about how things were going.
"Arthur."
I looked up to see both Master Kao and Commander Green looking at me. My master gave me a scolding glare and gestured towards Green, who didn't really seem affected by my spacing out.
Sorry master, it won't happen again, I told her through the force, before turning my gaze back to Green. When I focused on what Green was saying, he was going over our plan to capture Dooku, so I made sure to listen to every detail…
"Doesn't sound like a hard mission to me," Green said with sarcasm. "We'll be in and out, right kid?" I guess he was trying to reduce the pressure of the job.
"Yeah, droids won't even notice that Dooku is missing" I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster. Green smiled and looked at me, "I can't wait to see Big Grumpy's face when we take him back to Corascaunt."
"Well shall we get this show on the road?" I asked. I made my way beside Green and nudged his shoulder, "In and out" I said sarcastically, as we made our way to our cruiser.
"So how do we know where we are going?" asked Arthur, curious as to how they already knew where Dooku was going to be, and where they needed to be in order to execute their plan.
"Clone intelligence," Green said over his shoulder, "We caught a transmission between Grievous and Big Grumpy and found out where he's headed next."
"I mention how much I hate Grievous?" I asked. I hated him even more now since the dream, because he killed me, but I tried my best to keep my cool. We entered the cruiser and got all the necessary preflight checking down and took off and entered in our coordinates in order to go into hyperspace. I looked out the windows at the front of the bridge and awed at the view of going into hyperspace.
"I couldn't agree with you more, kid," Green sighed, "I lost a lot of good men to that creep."
"He has my first lightsaber. I don't want to think about all the harm he could do with my blade, and it's my fault for giving it to him." I said focusing my gaze at the floor in shame.
Green put a hand on my shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. "It's not your fault," he said, "You can't think like that in times like this. The blood he spills is on him, not you."
"I guess so" I reply back. I know he's right, but a small part of me still feels like it's my fault.
We started to come out of hyperspace and Master Kao and I went to our shuttle that we are going to use to sneak aboard the separatist ship, while the clones engage the droids as a distraction.
"Good luck guys," the commander said over the comm. as we started up the shuttle.
Narrator POV
"Master, I'm not going to lie. I'm afraid" Arthur told her, as they approached the shuttle. Arthur looked down at his feet in embarrassment after admitting this to her. Master Kao was always calm and focused, and if she ever was scared, which Arthur doubted, she was good at hiding it.
"I know how you feel, Arthur," she said, "I also have my doubts about this mission." She turned to look and Arthur and gave a small smile, "Don't worry; we have Green watching our back."
"I know, but this is Dooku were talking about. I already have trouble with not allowing myself to fall to the dark side of the force, but Dooku is a master, and I don't want to think about what he could do to me." Arthur still kept his face nailed to the floor and his feet. He didn't want to make eye contact after admitting this to his master.
"I have faced him before," Oni said, "He is not what you think. Remember, young one, he was once a Jedi. To date, I have never heard of him killing one of us. It's not in his character." There was a flash of pain that crossed the woman's eyes, making her golden, piercing gaze dull slightly. Her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed. Dooku is still a monster.
"Master, are you ok?" Arthur asked with concern. I have never seen her bright golden eyes dull before in my time with Master Kao.
"Now is not the time to discuss the past," she replied with a sigh, "But perhaps after this mission I might be willing to share it."
"I understand my master," the young man replied, knowing how troubling pasts can be for people, "I too wish to forget my past as well, but I cannot, it's too personal and horrifying" He finished, switching his gaze to look out the viewport, trying his best not to think of his parents.
Master Kao merely looked at her Padawan before turning back to the view of hyperspace. No one should have to endure that pain. "We'll be exiting hyperspace in thirty minutes."
Narrator POV
Oni's eyes opened slowly as the alarm signaled their arrival. She got up from her meditative position on the floor of the cockpit and climbed into the pilot's chair. "Arthur," she spoke into her comm., "We're jumping out of hyperspace. You'd better hurry because we only have a sixty second window to sneak onto Dooku's ship."
"I'm ready master" came Arthur's voice over the comm system back to his master. Seconds later, Arthur appeared in the cockpit and sat next to his master, ready for their mission to capture Dooku, while the clones supplied a distraction by attacking the droids.
The streaks of hyperspace disappeared and the two Jedi came face to face with the battle. Republic and Separatist ships were hammering one another in a fierce campaign. Oni's eyes searched the ships for their target.
"There," she said, pointing to the marked flagship, "That's Dooku's ship."
"I got a bad feeling about this" said Arthur, as he couldn't help but think of how Dooku could get inside his head and bring out the dark side that was still swirling around inside.
"Hang on," Master Kao said just before she began to weave the ship through the tight knots of fighters. They swerved from left to right, always keeping the flagship dead center of the viewport. As they came closer to the ship, they noticed the blue hue of a shield. "Their shields are still up," Oni said calmly.
Switching on the shuttle's defense systems, the Jedi Master marked the external shield generators outside the hangar bay and fired. Three shots burst from the forward canons and demolished the generators. Seconds later, the blue fizzled out and the shuttle sped up to land in the hangar.
"This is where the fun begins" said Arthur with a heavy breath, as their ship docked onto Dooku's flagship. Once their ship was docked, Arthur stood up from his seat and double tapped his lightsaber hilt in his kama for good luck.
Oni looked out the viewport and gave a slight snort. "We'll have to make our way through that first." She pointed out at the massive number of battle droids surrounding their ship.
"Shouldn't be much of a problem" said Arthur with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He followed his master out of the cockpit to face the droids. The two walked in audio silence, but sent thoughts of good luck to one another.
As they walked down the ramp of the ship, they paused to look at the horde of battle droids.
Oni looked to her Padawan just as the first shot rang.
Arthur: What was that! Leaving me and my master out to dry like that
Echo: (shrugs) Sorry, but we wanted to create suspense…
Resist: Yeah Arthur, keeps people interested in reading about you, darned if I know why
Green: Ouch, he's going to need some ice for that burn!
Oni: Too soon, Green, too soon.
Resist: Ohh, I see what you did there, (busts out laughing, and high fives Green)
Arthur: Jeez guys. Enough of this. Don't forget to drop some reviews.