Chapter 16

Plo narrowly dodged Grievous's twirling sabers. He was impressed by his attacks, although it was just as sloppy as a Sith. "Do you really think you can kill me?" Grievous snarled.

"I don't intend on killing you General," Plo responded, cutting one of his four arms. "You will stand trial before the Senate."

"I spit on your mercy, Jedi," Grievous responded, swiftly bringing one of his sabers down on Plo's, almost knocking it out of the Jedi's hand. "Your passion for your troops is your weakness."

"And your harshness with your troops is yours," he said, slicing through another of Grievous's lightsaber's. "It is over Grievous, soon your armies will join you in defeat."

"HAH! This war is far from over Jedi," Grievous roared, using his spare arm to grab his blaster. He fired on the Jedi while still attacking him with his duel sabers. "It is over for you, Jedi!"

"Don't bet on it Grievous," Plo replied confidently. Unless, he was expecting us...

"We'll see," the general said. "Tell me, do you think Skywalker has disabled the power generator yet?"

The child. No.

"What's the plan now?" Penny inquired, back to back with Ahsoka, surrounded by commando droids. With Bolt at her feet growling and thinking the same thing.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" she retorted, holding her lightsaber out in front of her. "I should've known this was too easy! Nothing's easy in this war. If we just charge out, one of us will make it."

"And the other?" Penny asked, then figuring the answer in her head. Her mind raced furiously. Only one would make it, what if only one went? "Ahsoka! I have an idea!"

"I'm open to anything!" she said as one of the droids launched at her, swinging his sword. A dead blade? That's new.

"Lower your weapons," the droid commander shouted in deeper voice than the others, which sent a chill down Penny's spine.

Penny shoved the pack of spare detonators into Ahsoka's hands. "You take them back to the others. I hold 'em here." She pulled out a clone blaster and began blasting the circle of droids.

"Where'd you get that?" Ahsoka asked kicking away yet another droid.

"Took it from Jek, I don't think he'll mind much," she said, a bit blown back by the sudden force of the blaster. "Now go. We'll be fine, just hurry!"

"Are you sure?" she said as she noticed a small clearing back to the control pad. "What about you? You're too heavily outnumbered."

"You'll just have to come and get me," she blasted another droid as Bolt ripped through it. Then she saw the perfect clearing. "Go!" She almost pushed her through the wall of droids.

Ahsoka quickly jumped over the droids and ran back to the generator. She looked back at her, still holding off against them, Penny blasted some, Bolt ripped the rest apart. She certainly has courage. She admired that. She herself sliced one more droid, then ran back. Penny sighed in relief when she had disappeared, then turned back to the battle right in front of her. One of the droids had grabbed her blaster and was holding her by the arms. She struggled to get away only to see a droid behind her preparing to shoot her in the back. Wait for it. The droid fired, Penny jumped just to avoid the bolt, which hit her captor. She continued to fire wildly at the endless line of droids, looking back to make sure Bolt was alright. He was fine, but preoccupied. So much for his help. Then she realized something happened. It wasn't something she heard, it was something she didn't hear. She looked down at her blaster and saw she was pulling the trigger, but nothing was emitting from it. She had run out of ammunition! Okay, only five or ten left. I can do this! She began swinging the blaster like a club at the advancing black wall, hitting each droid in the face, one simply shook it off and seized the gun out of her hand. She then proceeded to swing her fist into the droid's chest, with her injured arm. More pain ran through her arm than ever as blood began leaking out of her hand. The droid grabbed her by the arm and hurled her off the edge of the bunker, sending her plummeting down twenty feet into a small pool of leaked fuel, her foot catching on something on the bottom. Not my day.

Bolt heard her shriek of pain and looked over just in time to see her fall into the gas. PENNY! He was more enraged now more than ever. He lunged at five of the droids, swiftly tearing them apart. He through the body of another into the remaining group, knocking them over. He leapt in the air, and ignited his laser eyes to finish the them off. He stood there breathing heavily, and looked around, to see he had finished the entire squadron almost by himself. But he had little time to be proud. He ran over to the edge to see Penny hadn't resurfaced. He waited a few more seconds. Still nothing. No. No Penny. Not now! He turned back to see Anakin, Rex, Ahsoka, and the other clones run up to the wide bunker.

"Where's Penny?" Anakin inquired, a thousand scenarios instantly began running through his head.

Bolt motioned to the cliff. No.

"Come on kid. Breathe. Breathe!" Anakin became more and more desperate with each passing minute Penny was unconscious.

It had already been two standard minutes since he had pulled her from the bottom, he continued to push down on her chest, squeezing the fuel out of her shirt. But not her mouth. "C'mon kid. Don't do this! Give me sign here!" Anakin continued to plead, although remembering his teachings as a Jedi, he couldn't bear to see another innocent life taken by the Separatists. "Don't let go now, kid. Not after all that. C'mon."

Bolt felt completely shattered inside. He failed to protect Penny, he wasn't fast enough. Now she was gone. He paced dolefully up and down beside Penny's body. I'm sorry Penny. I failed you. I failed your father. I did everything I could to protect you, it...it just wasn't good enough. Bolt finally lied down next to her. He had to feel her warmth one more time. After an additional two minutes of trying to revive her, Anakin stopped and looked over at Bolt, then up at Ahsoka, who had both came to the same conclusion as he had. Penny was beyond saving. She was gone.

Anakin held back tears as best as he could. I'm sorry kid. I'm sorry you ever came into this. Tears hovered in Ahsoka's eyes also as she watched Anakin rise. "Come on," he said walking away, gesturing to two of his men to take her body. "We have to help master Plo."

The clones all nodded together and followed him. Artoo beeped mournfully as he followed as well. Rex looked back on her one final time...and noticed something unusual. Her chest was moving up and down. Could it be? Was it simply a figment of his saddened mind. No. It happened again. Bolt had noticed it also. "General..." Rex called cautiously.

Anakin turned to see Penny turn over and heave a large amount of liquid out of her mouth. He quickly ran over to her side, "You okay kid?" he asked, relieved, but still worried.

"I...think I'm..." she waited for her coughing to cease. "I think I'm fine."

A sigh of relief came from all of them. Rex took a small vile from his belt, "Here," he said, offering it to her. "It may not taste any better, but it'll help get that fuel out of your body safely."

Penny took and quickly drank it, anything tasted better than the fuel that had just been forced down her throat. "We thought we lost you kid," Anakin said, patting her on the back.

Bolt jumped up on her and began covering her face with licks, not caring how bad the fuel tasted. Penny giggled and started to push him off herself. "It's okay boy! I'm fine! It's okay," she sat up and looked lovingly into his eyes. "You're my good boy." Then she looked back to Rex remembering . "How's Jek?"

Rex's smile vanished off his face. "Um..." he stuttered, not sure how else to put it. "Jek's...I'm sorry kid. Jek's dead. He lost too much blood."

She gasped sharply at this, tears entering her eyes. "Oh..." she said softly. He wasn't going to be fine. Then another question entered her head. "What about that...general, guy?"

Anakin stiffened up. Indeed. What about Grievous? Had master Plo and his men been able to hold out? There was a way to find out. "That's right. We have to help master Plo!" Ahsoka said hastily.

Artoo beeped excitedly. "We will," Anakin assured. "And capture Grievous, this time." We have to. I'll make sure of it.