Luke watched the young togruta female walk into another tent just a few feet away as another woman walked out. They both had the impression of being servants to the camp. He waited until she was inside until he walked over to the tent and peered inside.
"Leia!" He said, rushing through the tent entrance, his arms extending upwards in relief and excitement.
His sister looked up from the fire with joy before her face turned into a frown. He didn't understand why until he felt he felt something come in contact with his back followed by a blow to his head. The snow began to grow closer and closer to his face until he laid in it, unconscious.
He opened his eyes but even the gentle light emptied from the fire made his head throb. He realized his helmet had been removed. He shut his eyes again with a groan. He must not have been out long, listening to the two women argue.
"Why would you do that?!" Leia scolded the younger female.
"He was following me!" She protested. "Was I just supposed to let him take me?!"
"He was trying to get us out of here!"
"We'll tell your.. whatever he is to you.. to not come running in next time. Because I don't know if you know this or not Senator, but in most parts of the galaxy when someone comes rushing in it typically means they're a threat." She quipped. Leia assumed she must have overheard her earlier exchange between Bo and Visla from the way she was adressed.
"I said I was coming." Luke mumbled, his hand resting on over his eyes.
Leia walked over to him and knelt down. She gently moved his hand to see a visible cut on his temple. It didn't look fatal and luckily wasn't bleeding profusely but she could imagine it still brought an annoying amount of pain. She brushed his hair back some to see other smaller cuts.
"You bantha brain..." she mumbled, reaching for his utility belt in search of any sort of medical supplies.
"Hood still, it'll just be a pinch." She poked a bacta stim into his neck. "Next time warn me that your going to be dressed as one of them." She helped him sit up.
He opened his eyes slowly this time, feeling the stim kick in and replenish some of his energy. The aching in his head was temporarily lifted. He looked around the tent and saw a black skillet painted with his blood.
"You hit me in the head with a frying pan?!" Luke looked at the togruta.
"I could feel you following me you creep!" She shot back.
"Are you feeling better now?" Leia asked as he rose to his feet.
"Yes, enough for now until we-"
She didn't let him finish before her palm went across his face. "You laser brain! Me and R2 almost lost you because of that stupid temple!" He was confused when she wrapped her arms around him tightly. He did the same. "We didn't know if that black hole would ever return you to us." She said sincerely, her tone that of a loving sibling.
"Don't worry, I told you I'd find you." They pulled apart.
"A temple? As in Jedi temple. Your a Jedi!?" The girl had remained silent as she watched the pair reunite.
"You must be as well. I sensed your presence on my way here. It threw me off for a moment."
"How have a I never seen you around the temple?" She asked, taking note of his dark black robes. Her own master wore dark robes but not even he dawned black unlike the man in-front of her.
"That's because he usually gets sent on secret orders by the council a-lot." Leia answered for him, knowing Luke doesn't understand where they've landed. "I've had years of study in old temples and ancient cultures that proved useful to the council so they allowed me to tag along with him and aid in the mission." Leia gave him a quick glance.
"Just go with it, I'll explain when its just us two." She used their force bond as a secure line of communication.
"Got it." He responded.
"Yes.. and when we finally arrived at the location of an ancient temple pirates seperated us on different ships and abandoned us here. They had force dampening cuffs, it was impossible for me to escape. But luckily we've managed to find each other again." Luke did as Leia said and went along with the story.
"Well now with two Jedi, we should be able to escape with ease." Leia said handing Luke his saber from off the ground.
"There's only one issue. We can't leave yet, not without my friend and certainly not without my master's droid. He would have a fit if he found out I left his precious sidekick behind."
"Where's your droid?" Luke asked, putting his helmet back on.
"In that tent over there." She nodded to the tent across the snow covered path.
"Stay here I'll get both of our droids, likely they'll know what to do." He poked his head back in the tent before leaving. "What's your droids name?"
"R2. He's an astromech."
"Oh.." he mumbled. Her response threw him off but perhaps R2 was not an uncommon droid name? "Stay here, I'll be back soon." He masked his confused tone. He made sure to remove his saber from his belt and hid it inside his boot.
"Come on let's take him to the boss, he'll know what to do with him." Two mandolorian soldiers walked R2 into another nearby tent, the same one he nearly walked in earlier. "Move faster!" The other kicked Luke's blue and white companion, infuriating him to see his droid treated like a bucket of bantha fodder. He waited for the group to enter into the green cloth tent before he followed. He stepped inside the crowded area, picking out his R2 unit. Luckily he hadn't yet been handed over to their boss, whoever and wherever he was. Luke noticed one of the soldiers wander off in one corner of the tent while he left the other to gaurd by R2.
Perfect. Luke noticed the servers handing out intoxicating drinks to some of the soldiers. He wandered around the tent, attempting to blend in before he casually made his way to R2.
"The boss wants me to take this one outside and scrap him for parts." Luke said to the guard by the droid.
"But he told us-" the man protested.
"You could ask him yourself, I'm sure he wouldn't mind repeating himself." Luke cut him off. The guard didn't respond knowing what type of man their boss was. Luke got behind R2 and shoved him towards the exit. "Sorry buddy" he whispered to R2.
"Where are you taking this droid?" He was stopped by another mandolorian. This one Luke noted, had slightly more decorated armor than the others with his side cape and emblems he wore. The nearly bald headed man used his arm to block across Luke's shoulders.
Luke froze where he stood. "I'm taking him out back.. as ordered by the boss himself." He said confidently.
Tar Visla shoved him back with his arm and drew his weapon. He pointed the blade centimeters away from Luke's throat, he could feel the heat radiating off the ancient weapon. Luke had only heard of the dark saber in stories and a few books. He never actually thought he would discover the saber for himself. The weapon always intrigued him, he just wished he could have discovered it under better circumstances.
"I am the boss!" Tar Visla spat. "So you must be a spy." He gathered his calm back.
"I have no loyalty with the Empire." Luke said carefully.
"Empire.." Visla chuckled. "You Separatist scum!" He nodded over to 2 of his soldiers, "Go, get me the others in the tent at the end of this row. So the Count must have hired you to infiltrate my ranks." He looked around the tent. "Where's the other boy?" One of the mandos shoved a younger boy into the middle of the scene. "So Mr.Bonteri, it seems you all had planned to deceive me." He held his blaster up to Bonteri with his free hand, his other still holding a blade to Luke.
"Lux!"
"Ashoka." Lux responded when the young togruta and Leia were shoved into the mix as well.
"We could have stopped the Count, Lux." Visla spat.
"I don't know any of them except Ashoka! I swear!" The boy protested, fear radiating off of him like the stench of a Jawa.
"You lie." He turned his head to the right to face Luke. "And you boy, which ones are your companions?"
Luke thought about the results of his answer carefully. If he spoke truthfully that he only knew Leia who knows what he would do with the other two? Perhaps if he told the truth they would be better off... or maybe not.
"All of them sir. They knew nothing about this part of the plan, it was all part of my seperate mission given to me personally by the Count. Please, let them go!" Luke pretended to plead.
"When I give you the cue, you and the others grab a weapon, grab Ashoka's droid and head for the speeder. There's one parked near the front of the camp. Take it and find a ship and get out of here." He spoke to Leia through the force. She looked at him and responded with a silent nod.
Luke assumed Visla had finished his speech while he mentally spoke with Leia. ".. but first your women will pay for your crimes agianst Death Watch." He gave a signal to two of his soldiers to fire their blasters on the two women.
"No!" Luke shouted letting out a massive wave of force repulse. The entire tent flew back except Leia and their two new friends, thanks to Ashoka's own force abilities for holding them steady. Luke summoned his saber from his boot and slashed at the first enemy that rushed him. Leia and the others did as they were instructed and picked up loose weapons they found off the ground.
They rushed outside of what still stood of the tent to see tons if not all the droids the camp had captured repaired and attacking their fellow mandolorian rulers.
"R2!" Ashoka shouted, seeing her droid in the center of the bunch.
"Artoo?!" Luke called for his droid in disbelief. His Artoo rammed into the side of his leg beeping angrily. But that was impossible!
Leia looked over to see his shocked expression, also realizing there were two very similar astromech droids. "I know, I'll explain later!" She led them to cover and out of the crossfire.
"There's two R2's?!" Ashoka exclaimed once they were huddled together.
"I'll explain later!" Leia was getting tired of repeating herself. "Right now we need to get onto that speeder and find a ship!"
"Our ship isn't far from here, I'll drive us." Lux landed a shot on a distant enemy in the line of fire, poking his head back towards the group.
"Luke, you and Ashoka clear us a path and Lex, I, and the droids will get the speeder powered up." Leia directed.
The two Jedi nodded and activated their green blades. "You have two lightsabers?" Luke seemed almost jealous at how much cooler it was than the typical standard single blade.
"You've never seen anyone wield two sabers before?" Ashoka raised an eyebrow. She seemed curious at the young man. Along with his own eerily similar droid, the very presence of him was off.
"Uh.. of course I have! It's just been a while since I've not worked alone, especially with my other fellow Jedi. I don't get to see dual wielders that often." He explained without trying to ramble on to sell his appearance that he was in fact a normal Jedi and certainly not a time traveling Jedi from 20 years in the future.
He watched in utter awe at how his new Jedi friend gracefully flew threw the air, dodging the laser bolts flying her way. She was encircled by five mandos only to reflect all their bolts and be the result of their own deaths in a matter of mere seconds.
"Te- Nice!" He complimented her, nearly asking her to reach him how to do that, though his request would probably raise even more red flags especially since he did appear to be older than she was. At least currently. He nearly got his head shot off if not for the force alerting him. He slowed down the speed of the blaster bolts and the few enemies around him long enough for him to strike them down and penetrate their tough armor with his blade. He hated killing those he didn't need to. In his mind, he would only resort to killing if the enemy put him in the position with no other options. Unfortunately with mandolorians having such a vicious nature, not many of them left him with the option of just a simple slash across the arm or leg.
More mandos began to deploy into the fight within the camp but fortunate for them the rebellious droids were doing a rather remarkable job at dwindling the mando's numbers down.
Leia had snatched a mandolorian pistol from the ground earlier, firing it for the first time. She enjoyed the feel this weapon had to it. "I've got to get one of these." She smiled, landing a deadly bolt just as the base of an enemy's skull from behind.
"Here take another!" Lux tossed her another mando pistol from a fallen corpse he had just shot down.
Several more mandos arrived at once with their jet packs. All of them fired their missiles at the group waiting for the impact before they landed to finish them off.
Luke and Ashoka held the explosives back as they hovered in the distance between them and the mandos watching from several feet above.
"Ready?" Luke looked over to Ashoka.
"I don't think I can turn them!" The young padawan said through gritted teeth, clearly struggling to simply keep the missiles from destroying them.
"Yes you can! I can sense the force beaming through you Ashoka, just calm your mind. Close your eyes and.." he paused to steady his own breathing trying to pick up Ashoka's slack. ".. feel the light. Let it refresh and strengthen you padawan." As he spoke she obeyed and he could feel some of the weight lift off of him. The missiles began to shift away from their direction, some returning back to their owners and others exploded into other enemies on the ground.
"Good job-" Luke was cut short when one of the mandos came flying at him. He remembered the special emblems on the Tar Visla's armor, the heat of the mandolorian's flame thrower skimming across Luke's face. His green saber blocked the heat before it dissapeared and Visla aggressively attacked with his dark saber.
"Keep going!" Ashoka told Leia and Lux while she ran over to help Luke. She tore through Visla's jet pack, nearly severing his spine. The impact sent him stumbling forwards, catching himself.
"Jedi!" Tar Visla hissed as if the name was a poison on his tongue. The man knew deep down that he couldn't take two Jedi alone, but it wasn't in his nature to simply cower away.
Leia and Lux meanwhile were held up with their own mando problems other than just the typical mando troop. Leia spotted Bo Katan Kreeze flying straight for her, blaster aimed right at her head. The two R2 droids rushed for cover behind a old pile of nearby crates, deciding to remain there until told otherwise.
Perhaps it was the will of the force but she could have sworn she saw the blaster bolt bend just centimeters enough to miss her face and fly right past her.
Luke saw Leia and Lux dodge Bo's first few attacks before turning to Ashoka mid fight. "Ashoka toss me one of your sabers."
"Here!" She carefully threw the deactivated blade to the man.
"Leia catch!" He threw the blade a few yards away from him, using the force to make up for his poor throwing skills to land the blade in Leia's hands. He only hoped it would give her somewhat of an advantage, long enough for them to deal with Visla before they could help the other two with their own fight.
Leia was surprised she caught the weapon. Precisely dodging fire, catching long throws.. careful Leia, if you manage to pull this fight off they might ask you to blow up an entire battle station today. She tried to prep herself mentally as best she could. Lux quickly rushed over to a nearby corpse and salvaged a wrist cable and attached it to his own body.
"I haven't killed a Jedi in a while, this'll be fun." Bo landed on her feet and held her pistol out, aimed right for Leia. As she fired, Leia deflected the bolts, not well but well enough to keep herself alive. The pace of the bolts got faster and more powerful as Bo closed the gap between the two with every cocky step she took. One managed to sneak past her blade right for her chest.
Luke felt the danger and seconds before the impact he darted his eyes over to the distance far in-front of him and froze the bolt, maneuvering it to slide past her and hit a shard of a defeated droid, reflecting back and knocking the female soldier in the shoulder. He sacrificed his ribs for her as Visla placed his boot against Luke's torso. Leia glanced back to her brother processing what happened. The sound of Lux firing his wrist cable returned her attention back to the fight infront of her. The cable tightly constricted her body. Leia marched up to her, sweeping her feet out from under her. "Bantha brain!" She said, kicking Bo's weapon out of her palm and reach.
"Come on, that isn't going to hold long." Lux lead her and the droids further along the camp.
They had beaten Visla down to one knee and chipped armor. Ashoka locked her blade up with his as Visla used both his hands to defend against her. He decided to draw his pistol again, ab attempt to land a shot on Luke. Before he could even raise the weapon Luke pulled the pistol towards him with the force, his green blade slicing clean through the blaster. Visla was sure he was to die at the hands of these Jedi scum.
"Hold him there." Luke said to Ashoka, their blades still locked together. He quickly rushed to Visla's side and placed a hand on the side of the man's temple. He was helpless to try and strike the other Jedi down without the other killing him first, resistance at this point was futile. All he could do was hold his position with the female Jedi, if he let up and turned his blade to the other, he would surely be sliced in half.
"You Jedi and your council will regret this!" Visla warned.
"Easy. Rest now." Luke said calmly. Visla fell limp seconds later. He made sure to check the mando's pulse before catching up to Leia and Lux.
By the time they regrouped, Lux and Leia were boarding the speeder. The two droids were lagging behind and before Luke could help them speed up from behind a missile crashed into one of the droids, destroying him upon impact. "Artoo!" Luke shouted rushing towards his beleoved droid." He knew it had been his Artoo that had been blown to peices, the force had told him so the second it happened.
Shards of the little astromech droid were scattered everywhere. Buried within the snow he did find a piece of Artoo still intact, a piece of the droid's memory. He placed the part in his pocket.
"Luke watch out!" Leia warned as she and the others got the speeder ready.
He activated his blade and deflected the blaster bolts aimed for him. He covered until Ashoka's R2 unit made it safely across the snowy street and to the speeder. He let the dark side over take him selfishly in this moment. He had always pushed it away but the destruction of his father's droid was the tipping point. He manipulated the force to bring the trooper responsible for Artoo's death to him. The trooper's feet drug across the snow until his throat reached the hands of Luke.
"I hate you." Luke said tightly. He could see his painful and hate filled eyes through the reflection of the enemy's visor. The mando only responded with croaks of choking and beating against Luke's right grip. Luke didn't know what he was doing. In the moment he truly buried himself deep within his pain. The result wasn't something even he expected. He removed the mando's helmet to reveal a man with fear filled eyes and a pleading expression. Luke didn't care in the moment, he closed his eyes shut, still holding the man, his feet dangling slightly above the ground. He concentrated and felt the force bend to his will. He reached for a singular piece of snow, small enough to fit on the human finger. The snow entered into the man's body through his nose. He began to choke even more except it sounded as if he were choking on liquid. Luke opened his eyes to see the sight before him. He saw his friend's murderer drowning, his lungs filled with great amounts of water. Seconds later his face turned blue and Luke dropped the body at his feet.
Ashoka and Lex had been occupied defending the speeder and loading R2 onboard. Leia was the only one to have witnessed the event that had just transpired. It truly shook her and sent a chill down her spine. She wasn't sure if even Vader had been capable of such a power. They finally loaded onto the speeder and sped off out of the camp, but not without resistance from Bo Katan and a few other soldiers that flew after them. Leia, Luke and Ashoka took out the remaining soldiers except for Bo who had seemed to be the most difficult of the bunch. She had landed a shot on the speeder, luckily only giving it a scratch. Leia aimed a precise shot on the jet pack while Luke followed it up with a powerful force push, sending her flying backwards without a way for her to catch up in time.
"R2 get the ship ready!" Ashoka said as they all raced off the speeder and onto her ship. Her droid responded with an immediate chirp.
Everyone except R2 who was plugged in elsewhere onboard, gathered in the cockpit to help get the ship up and running.
"So where are you taking us? Luke asked Ashoka, flipping switches on the dash.
"Coruscant. We'll resupply and gather ourselves at the temple, you two can get help with your ship. Plus the council will want a report from us on what happened."
"R2 plot is a coarse will you?" Ashoka spoke over the ship's comm system. She could see the droid's name made his frown more visible. "There's a couple of cots and some rations in the back you two are welcome to help yourselves." Ashoka kindly offered Luke and Leia.
"Thank you." Luke gave her a smile as he left the cockpit.
"I am sorry about your droid. Once we figure out what's going on maybe the council can offer a solution to all this." Ashoka looked over to Leia once Luke had left.
"Yes, thank you." Leia said, granting her a smile and following after Luke, leaving Ashoka and Lux alone up front.
Sorry for the long chapter, feel free to let me know your thoughts and feedback on the story so far :D