Haven
"Okay, well, at least we know panels 2 and 1 aren't what we're looking for." Nicky said, trying to be positive as we stood inside the chocolate factory elevator. I, however, did not care for positivity after we were forced to carry 5 heavy boxes (I'll admit that one was my fault) and after our newest wrong floor we were almost killed by a rabid prisoner. We did not allow him and his guards in our elevator.
There was an annoying ding as we reached panel 3's 5th floor. The doors slid open to reveal… the reactor core. Darn it!
I reached forward to press the next button, but then something caught my eye. A hooded man was watching us from one of the distant cores.
I instantly froze, wondering what the best choice was. If we moved would that make us potential threats? If we stayed still would we be threats? We were still dressed as storm-troopers and he thought we were still in the landing bay center.
"What?" Nicky asked after she noticed (finally)that I had stopped moving.
"Ben, that way." I said as I tilted my head in his direction. She looked and burst into a smile.
"Hey Ben!" She called before I clamped my hand over her mouth. What the heck was she thinking? Who knew who else was in here?
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
"It's fine, if anyone else was in here Ben wouldn't be out in the open." I glanced back at him and realized he was out in the open. Not really even trying to hide.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes as I let go of her and went back into the elevator. She joined me and we then tried the 4th panel.
The 5 button was pressed and the elevator lurched sideways before heading straight up. It came to a stop about 10 minutes later.
The doors opened up to a long hallway. We started down it, thinking we'd finally found the floor, just had arrived at the wrong end.
"Do you remember what her cell number was?" I asked, thinking maybe if we could find the cell then we could find Luke and the others.
"Um… no." Nicky answered. I tried my very hardest to think back to Threepio's words. Level 5, Detention Block AA-23. Shoot, he hadn't actually mentioned it, Han and Luke found out in detention level 5. Where we should be right now.
"Think, Haven, think!" I yelled at myself. I really doubted I was going to remember anything, as thinking is my worst subject. Especially since I hadn't seen the movie in about 2 years. Yeah, there was no way remembering was going to happen. "Okay, um, Nicky! You think!"
"What makes you think I'm going to remember it anymore than you? If I remember correctly Han never actually read it out loud." Nicky argued.
"Wrong! How else would Luke have known since he never actually went over to the little control center thingy." I announced proudly. I couldn't see Nicky's face but I could feel her smiling at me. Not like Jedi feel, but it's Nicky. She has like a happy aura or something and you could just tell she was smiling.
"See? You don't give yourself enough credit. Now think!" Her smiling aura went away and her voice returned to storm-trooper gruffness.
"I'm not going to remember it Nicky, so why don't we just head that direction so we can get to the others." I didn't wait for an answer as I took off. Nicky ran after me and we didn't stop running until we heard another trooper's footsteps.
It wasn't a storm-trooper though… it was Vader. As the Darth Vader; killer of thousands, master of all the things evil and winner of the seriously messed-up face award (awarded by Olivia at our movie award sleepover 3 years ago).
He had three bodyguards following, two on each side and one in the back. I immediately tensed up and had to force myself to keep a steady pace and not take off running.
Remember Nicky's aura of pure happiness, and the slight bit of annoyance that I neglected to mention earlier? Well Vader's was just the opposite. I could feel the hate vibrating off of him as I passed by.
I thought we were safe when the sound of his boots stopped. I instantly filled with dread as I heard them turn around to face us.
"Troopers." He called.
"Nicky…?" I asked in a whisper, hoping she'd prove me wrong. That Darth was talking to some other invisible storm-trooper next to us and not us.
"Yep." She confirmed in a low voice that was full of obvious fear. You know the situations bad when Nicky let people know she was scared.
We turned to face Darth Vader. Nicky turned her head to me and we engaged in a stare down to see who would speak first. Nicky broke away after 24 seconds.
"Yes, sir?" Nicky asked, taking the braver role that would have made me thrown up.
"You are very short. Why is that?" Vader asked, his voice completely dry of any emotion.
"Um, there was a malfunction in our batch." I said, now grateful for the dozens of Clone Wars episodes that focused on the clone troopers. Even if they were boring.
Vader stared at us for a moment before continuing. "All malfunctioned batches are trained to be medical or cleaner clones. Why are you in full armor?" Oh shoot…
"Um… they…" I unconsciously rubbed my hands together trying to think of something. I took a glance at Nicky. She was just as clueless as I was. "RUN!" I shouted and we took off as the guards began to shoot and chase us.
Was it a smart idea to run from Vader and his trained guards? No. No, it was not. In fact it was the dumbest plan I had ever come up with, but what were we supposed to do? Announce that they'd let us be trained as regular troops on a drunken whim? Say that we had found two sets of armor while cleaning and then decided to wear it everywhere?
They continued to chase us as we ran as fast as our trooper gear allowed us. Vader, however, just stood and watched them shoot. He didn't chase us, try to kill us or even move a single step. He just stood and watched us flee.
Once we were a far enough distance ahead we pressed a button and ducked into a side room. I was pressed against the door with my eyes closed, trying to catch my breath. Nicky was doing the same.
Once I opened my eyes I realized that this was not the detention block. Because sitting at an oval shaped table in front of us were a bunch of Imperial officials.
I elbowed Nicky and she opened her eyes to see the room of officials staring back at her.
I could hear Vader's mask down the hallway, we didn't have much time.
"Um, sorry, there was an, uh, weapons malfunction. I think it's clear now." I turned to Nicky. "Come on I88-B15708." I said, saying the first numbers that popped into my mind.
The officials said nothing as we left and we soon found out why.
"That went, okay." Nicky said as we headed back in the direction of the elevator.
Then I suddenly felt a cold, steel-hard grip on my neck and could hear his metallic breathing right behind me. How had we not noticed him?
"Take these to detention block 5." He said before ripping off Nicky's helmet, and then mine. Our piled up hair fell down and if Vader could show anything I'm pretty sure it would be surprise. It wasn't everyday you found two teenagers aboard the deadliest weapon in the galaxy.
He stared at us for a moment before shoving us at the guards like we were some sort of disease. The storm-trooper's strong grip was suddenly on my shoulder and I couldn't move out of it.
And so began the long battle of us vs. them. A full on power struggle. So pretty much the entire way to the elevator we were fighting them, even though it did no good. We came to a different elevator and they impatiently explained that we had to go through another official hallway and that we'd better not try anything if we wanted to live.
So we cooperated. That is, until Nicky thought of a plan that she had no way of telling me. So she just tried her best to drop clues.
"Remember when you did karate in the third grade?"
"Yeah…"
"Do you still remember some of the moves?"
"Yes…"
"Good." She cheerfully responded. She took a glance around the hallway and then stepped on the storm-trooper's foot. That didn't do much more than startle the troopers, but I could do much more than step on their feet. I managed to kick my guard in the gut which caused him to stumble backwards. I punched the second trooper's head and my hand immediately filled with numbing pain.
Both troopers were dazed, but they weren't out. That sort of went with the unknown plan.
She moved towards a panel on wall that had a grey symbol on it. I had no clue what the grey symbol meant, but I got a pretty good idea when it slid up and a horrible stench came out of it.
"I am not going in there." I declared.
"Shut up and get in!" She said, pointing at the storm-troopers who were slowly getting back their correct mental states and standing. Troopers or trash? Troopers or trash?
One of them took a wobbly step towards and I made up my mind. Trash it was!
I slid down the chute head-first. Which, trust me, not a smart thing to do, as I landed head-first in the disgusting trash water.
I'm starting to think I do my best work at 3 in the morning. Because that's when this chapter was writen. I really shouldn't have drunk coffee at like 9 at night, but I had a craving. Anyways we've hit 50 reviews and gone over! Whoo! Review Response time!
StoryTeller222: Okay, I'm not trying to be rude, but you need to leave better reviews. Don't just tell me you've seen better, tell me how I can improve. What differences I should make, what I need to gain and what I need to lose.
EmeraldEyedJedi: Hmm, I wouldn't actually get too excited about that part, because if you do you're probably going to end up disapointed because it isn't that great to be honest. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with Obi-Wan and Kari that's why I set up a poll.
MysticRyter: Really? It never did that for me. Hmm.
PSDW: I know, right? Jaclyin and Nicky would be great friends, don't you think? And yes I am southern. Never actually left the south, unless you want to count the 6 weeks in Texas...
Cobalt Diamond: Really? I am so glad!
Ayy Kaim: Oh, okay.
rosesforever294: I'll try, but I can't promise anything :(
Anisoka99: Does that answer your question?
AaylaKit: I know, it's so annoying when people do that!
Okay, so there's slowly growing list of review responses! The poll for Obi-Wan's life is still up so vote peoples!
~Clover