One of Obi-wan's famous quotes...
Flying is For Droids
"Pull up, Anakin! Look out for the buzz droids! Incoming fighters on our left! Look out for those trees! You're flying too low! JUST KRIFFIN' SHOOT THE THING!"
This is Obi-wan when he's flying. Well, actually when I'm flying and he happens to be riding next to me. Usually, all of his shouts of panic and attempts at giving advice fall on my selectively deaf ears. That last statement catches my attention, though. Obi-wan never swears. Never. I glance at him with a small smile on my face, satisfied that I finally got the normally unflappable "Negotiator" to come undone. "Language, master," I say, shaking my head in mock disapproval.
If looks could kill, I would have just been incinerated. Actually, that would have happened a long time ago. But the fact that I just got my master to eat his own words only amps up the power in his naturally penetrating eyes. "Shut up and pay attention to where you're going," he snaps, obviously tense.
I snicker and turn my eyes back on the obstacles in front of me, which are really only trees, outcroppings, and a few separatist fighters chasing us around. Nothing terribly hazardous. "Sheesh! Did you forget to drink your tea this morning?"
I see him pinch the bridge of his nose out of the corner of my eye. It's one of his trademark expressions of annoyance. "Apparently. Had I taken the time to make some I would've spiked it with something to get me through this reckless disaster that you call flying."
"Hey! We're still alive aren't we?" I retort. A quick barrel roll gets us away from a barrage of blaster fire and I quickly flip us end over end so that we're behind one of our pursuers. It only takes a few shots for me to blow its engine. "And we've almost escaped!" I feel compelled to add. With Obi-wan, any argument that I can possibly come up with is an argument worth saying.
"Almost being the key phrase," he says dryly, having obviously ignored the fact that I just took out one of the seppies.
"I can't win, can I?" I angrily reply as I navigate our fighter through the narrow spaces between the trees.
He gestures upward with one hand. "You might consider flying over the trees rather than through them."
I huff in response, but I do take his advice and jerk our fighter up into open air. There are only two fighters left behind us now, and not having trees in the way certainly makes it easier for me to keep track of them.
It also gives them more opportunities to blast us into oblivion, which they take without hesitation. I try and dodge most of the fire, but a few shots still graze us despite my best efforts. "Well, that was a great idea. I'm going back down."
"Anakin…" he begins, but I'm already down in the trees again, jerking our fighter left and right. "Go back up."
Ugh. That tone irritates me to no end. He says it so casually that it shouldn't matter, but there's an edge of his 'disobey me at risk to your life' voice to it that makes me listen. I jerk the fighter back up. I let a soft laugh escape my lips when his head collides a little too roughly with the back of his seat. There's a muffled curse before I get another one of his glares. "I'm glad you find this amusing."
"Why did we come back up here again?" I ask, ignoring his sarcastic comment.
He reaches to the console and hits the button before I can stop him. "Master! We can't –" I can't finish because I'm suddenly flying through the air heading straight into the path of the oncoming fighters, having just been ejected from the safety of our cockpit. I don't scare easily, but for some reason this just downright terrifies me.
My master obviously is not terrified. He's back to being Mr. Nothing-phases-me and is flipping gracefully through the air, using the Force to enhance the height of his flight. His lightsaber is in his hand faster than I can blink and he slices at the first fighter as it zips above him. The plasma blade rips through the engine in that split-second and the next thing I know, the fighter explodes a few seconds later.
The other fighter avoids the blade, but my master merely twists around as he's falling and closes his eyes. A brief moment of concentration is all it takes. The Force is swirling around him as he reaches out a hand. The fighter streaks towards the ground, no longer able to control its direction. A second plume of fire follows the first.
And then we're just falling. The fall isn't the problem. We can handle that; piece of cake. I frown and glare at him across from me. He's glaring back. "Why are you such a reckless pilot?" he asks.
"Why did you just wreck my fighter?" I shout back. It's funny how neither of us cares much about how he just took out two fighters with nothing but his lightsaber. Maybe we're just used to accomplishing the impossible.
"You were going to wreck it anyway. I just saved you the trouble. And this way, we weren't in it!"
"I was not going to wreck it!" I snap.
He rolls his eyes and then points his lightsaber at me. "Don't try and deny it, Anakin. We both know that every crash landing you have to make is just that… a crash."
"Yeah, so? At least I've perfected the art of crashing!"
"My mistake. I forgot you've improved enough to come away with one broken appendage rather than four!" He shouts.
I narrow my eyes. "Wait a second. The last time I didn't break anything. I only dislocated my shoulder and twisted my knee a little bit."
"Uh-huh," he says. I wince, knowing what's coming. "Except that I happened to break one wrist, snap my left elbow, crush one of my shins, and fracture the other leg. That's still four, Anakin."
I scowl before smiling sweetly. He'll love this one. "You should've been strapped in."
His jaw clenches slightly. Not much, but I notice. "Not the point."
"Uh, yeah the point. You wouldn't have broken your entire body if you had been safely strapped to your seat. Instead, you were tumbled around like socks in the laundry."
"Forgive me if I trusted you to make a safe landing for once in your life," he retorts.
"It was perfectly safe. For those of us who were strapped in properly," I say, grinning wider when his eyes narrow.
"Why are you such a reckless pilot?" he repeats.
That's the first argument I've won against him. "Why do you hate flying so much?" I ask in response.
"Flying is for droids."
I look at him in disbelief. "Why do you say that?"
His expression hardens into one of both anger and regret. "Droids are just machines. Scrap metal." He pauses. "Too many of my men have died in fighters. And in all honesty, I'm afraid that some day you will too."
Oh.
We land in the forest below. Safely, I might add.
Review if you have time! :)
"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers." ~ Francois Fenelon