AN: Enjoy the chapter as per usual. Just FYI, the Jedi with Anakin Skywalker in this chapter is Obi-Wan Kenobi, even if Charlie is a little blind to that fact. Read and review! May the Force Be With You.
Disclaimer: George Lucas owns it all.
CHAPTER 9
Charlie was standing on the upper rim of the open air arena, the hot wind that blew across Geonosis whipping her face. The locals who had been watching was clearly was supposed to have been a fight ending in death for Skywalker, Kenobi, and Amidala had long since fled. Charlie viewed the carnage below with utter horror. There were hundreds of droids surrounding perhaps a few dozen battle weary Jedi. She saw several strange, dangerous looking creatures wreaking havoc among the Jedi. She didn't stop to look at the bodies of the fallen.
It was a droid attack on a small woman in white that moved Charlie to action. The woman was Senator Padmé Amidala, Charlie was sure of it. She'd seen her in the main hall in the same outfit she wore not. Charlie hopped off the sat steps and joined the battle next to the Senator.
"Senator!" she yelled, trying to get the woman's attention. "Get to safety!"
But Amidala didn't seem to hear here. She kept disappearing into groups of droids and barely escaping with the help of her blaster.
Charlie swore again as she disemboweled some droids, feeling a desperate need to get the woman out of the fray. She was in danger without a lightsaber to defend against the droid's blaster fire.
Charlie's lightsaber flashed silver and deadly, and as she swung it, she barely kept from slicing another Jedi in half.
Charlie swore loud enough to get his attention.
"Get out of my kriffing way!" she yelled. There were more than enough droids for all of them, so why was he that close to her?
She continued fighting next to the Jedi, who wasn't going to ignore her barb.
"What are you supposed to be?" the Jedi yelled back with a voice that sent a jolt through her.
She ignored it in favor of fighting for her life.
"I've never seen a saber like that before." he continued. "You are no Jedi. Jedi know how to control themselves before slicing an ally in half."
Charlie felt the bolt of anger cut through her, but just as quickly squashed it. It was true that she wasn't a Jedi, but how dare he doubt her control? She shook off the feeling, though, needing to be focused if she was going to make it out alive.
"Yes, I know that, you ignorant, impudent wampa's ass!" she yelled, still protecting herself. "I'm as much a Jedi as you are, and I'm trying to rescue Skywalker, Kenobi, and the senator. So if you'll excuse me!"
She whirled away, slicing through droid after droid.
Not a minute later, she saw a spidery looking creature much larger than a man facing down the Jedi she'd just insulted. Not wanting him to die before she got another chance to prove him wrong, she force-jumped off a wall and landed on the creature's back, impaling it with her lightsaber.
"So much for that legendary control." she sniped at him, with one eyebrow raised.
And she twirled away once again, missing the strange expression on his face.
The battle was not going well for the Jedi fighters. They'd been pushed into a circle at the center of a whole lot of droids. Charlie was doing her best to destroy as many as possible while searching for the senator. She'd lost her after her confrontation with the Jedi, and hadn't seen her since. Charlie force-slammed two droids into one another while simultaneously lopping off the heads of a few others. It was times like this when she sunk into herself, letting her training and sharp instincts take over. She was using both the force and her lightsaber at their maximum abilities, but for every droid she destroyed, two more took its place. What the Jedi really needed was help.
"Where are Yoda and the clones?" she wondered out loud.
And then, as if she'd commanded their presence through the Force, they appeared overhead.
Quickly, they altered the outcome of the battle. She watched as Windu landed softly from a high up balcony and struck down Jango Fett. She watched clone after clone take on droids and destroy them with efficiency. What disturbed her most, however, was a glance at dark eyes and a white beard. Tyranus, or rather Count Dooku, was here. Charlie looked up in time to see him flee with a contingent of super battle droids.
Charlie needed to go after him.
She contacted Yoda through the force, informing him of the developments. He agreed with her assessment of the situation, letting her know that he would accompany her.
Still fighting, Charlie watched as a transport ship descended from above over the roiling battle. Two Jedi jumped aboard, motioning for someone else to follow. It was the senator, and Charlie was glad to see her alive.
But the senator wasn't cooperating. Growling in frustration, Charlie ran over to the woman and bodily threw her onto the transport and into the waiting arms of a Jedi she assumed was Anakin Skywalker. Good to know he was safe as well. She turned her attention from the transport ship once she knew the senator was safe, and continued fending off droids.
Yoda contacted her through the force a few minutes later, as the fight was beginning to wind down, telling her that he was aboard a transport ship that could pick her up if she needed it. Their destination was the tower Charlie had landed by. They had seen Count Dooku flee there. Charlie thought for a second, made a split second decision to take her speeder, and told him no.
Charlie took as many droids with her as she could. When she had done as much damage as she could, she looked around, allowing herself to see the battle fully. The clone army and the remaining Jedi had the battle well in hand. She was not needed here anymore. She sheathed her lightsaber and force-jumped back up and over the wall, landing lightly by her speeder. She checked for any droids within distance, and finding none, sped away from the arena.
The speeder kicked up dust as she pushed it to its maximum power. She'd seen Count Dooku now, and she couldn't be sure that he hadn't seen her. Something told her that he had. She was sure that he and Sidious had discovered her treachery by now, and didn't need Tyranus informing Sidious of her location. No, she would have to track him down and make sure the information remained on this planet.
As she sped away, she realized that one transport ship had already arrived at the tower, and that it wasn't Yoda's. The senator was being led back to the main ships by a few clones, safe at last. Charlie assumed that the first transport ship had held the two Jedi. They must have seen Count Dooku flee as well.
Charlie closed the distance on Yoda's transport ship, both arriving to the tower at the same time. Charlie saw him waiting for her at the mouth of a hanger that the transport ship had closed in on, and she began to climb the outside of the tower, using the force as a crutch.
When she'd reached the top, Yoda pulled her up, putting a finger to his lips as a way of telling her to be quiet. She controlled her heavy breathing, not wanting it to give her away. Together, they walked around a large stump of some kind, and beheld yet another fight.
Anakin Skywalker held a green and a blue lightsaber in either hand, holding his own against the red of Count Dooku's. Charlie saw the limp body of another Jedi, presumably the owner of the Skywalker's second lightsaber, lying in a corner of the room.
She watched with some trepidation as the two fought. The anger was clear on Skywalker's face. There was fear, also, for his downed master, but Charlie could also see a will to keep fighting, to defeat this most powerful enemy. But it was clear that Skywalker was tired and that Dooku would overpower him too quickly. She wasn't about to wait around until the padawan died.
She made her entrance when Dooku threw Skywalker into the same corner as the other Jedi. Skywalker was either unconscious or very close, and Dooku could have killed him if Charlie and Yoda hadn't entered when they did.
"Lord Tyranus." Charlie said, allowing confidence to fill her voice. "I have come for you. It is time to pay for your heinous crimes."
The Sith Lord turned to face her.
"Well well well!" he said, and she shuddered at the memories that accompanied his voice.
"Our escapee returns. Do not think your little show with the droidekas escaped our noticed. No, you will be returned to your rightful place by Master Sidious' side before this battle is over." He laughed, the sound echoing in the wide chamber.
Charlie merely stared at him, activating her lightsaber and preparing herself for the fight to come.
Yoda engaged him first, giving a fantastic display of lightsaber skills. Charlie watched, circling carefully, and saw the exact moment that Dooku realized he could not defeat Yoda. Force-thrown objects and force lightning were no match for the Jedi Master. Finally Dooku resorted to another one of his tricks. With the force, he crippled a pillar that threatened to fall on the two Jedi lying in a heap.
Yoda was able to stop it with the force, but at the cost of abandoning his fight with the Sith Lord.
Charlie saw the drive to flee in Dooku's eyes, and used the momentary distraction to engage him in battle. She wasn't about to let him escape.
The two fought furiously. Force thrown objects flew everywhere, force lightning was deflected, and lightsabers crackled with energy. Red and silver intertwined, just as they had not days ago when Charlie first tried out her new lightsaber.
Yoda removed the pillar from its threatening position, but chose not to join in the battle. He remained protectively over the bodies of the two downed Jedi.
Charlie and Dooku fought with mind and body, equals for the majority of the time, neither giving in. Charlie jumped and flipped over him, hoping to test his reflexes to their limit, but Tyranus was there to match her. She staved off every blow, fighting with two hands on her hilt to give each blow maximum effect.
There was no hesitation in Charlie's battle, only determination. It was this that began to wear on Dooku, who was starting to see the similarities between this fight and the last time they'd fought. His energy failed him, then, and just as Charlie had the previous morning, she disarmed the Sith Lord and pinned him between the red and silver blades.
"I should have killed you yesterday." Charlie said, with a venom that surprised even herself.
"You deserve to die for you heinous crimes, and I will not see you escape again." she said, both as a promise to him and to herself.
But Dooku simply smirked up at her.
"You won't kill me, child." he spat at her. "You haven't the backbone. You love your Jedi ways too much. Don't think your escape fooled us. We knew the moment you made your decision what you had been hiding from us for all these years. You betrayed the Sith, betrayed my Master, and for that, you will die. As a weak Jedi, you will fall under my Master's power. Make no mistake."
Charlie bristled, allowing anger to fuel her.
"I am no Jedi!" she responded with force. "I am a child of the stars! I am the last of the Silverstars, and I have no qualms about killing a hateful piece of humanity such as you, Darth Tyranus!"
Charlie took immense pleasure in the uncertain look that overcame the Sith's face. She knew that her anger at him was wrong, and that her satisfaction at the look on his face was wrong. But just as she'd said, she was no Jedi. Her control of her anger was her prerogative alone, and she had no code to tell her it was wrong.
Happy with her assessment of herself, she looked at the Sith lord at her mercy one last time. She allowed herself to empty her body of all anger and all thoughts of revenge before considering taking his life. He deserved to die, he really did. She'd seen him raze towns, torture and kill completely innocent people, and all in the name of attacking the Jedi. No, he couldn't be allowed to live.
Charlie beheaded the Sith Lord with his own lightsaber.
She paused after the blow, listening to the thunk of his head as it hit the metal floor. She deactivated both his weapon and hers, dropping his hilt next to his body and reattaching hers to her utility belt. She turned, somewhat disappointed that she'd had to take a life, but satisfied in her rationalization. Yoda looked at her pensively.
"Kill a man, you did. The Jedi way, that is not." the little green creature said to her, looking as if he was trying to figure out what to make of her.
Charlie matched his gaze.
"That was no man." she replied. "That was the apprentice of evil, and much too dangerous to keep alive. You did not watch him kills hundreds of innocent people and destroy cities with impunity. It was his turn to become one with the Force. I did not punish him as he deserves. The Force will do that for me."
Yoda nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"Kill out of anger, you did not. For now, that is enough." Yoda nodded one final time, as if to punctuate his sentence, and turned back to the two Jedi he'd been standing guard over.
Charlie contacted the nearest transport to come and retrieve them and the two Jedi. Together, Charlie and Yoda looked out upon the fading battle. The Republic's clones had taken care of most of the separatists, but the droid army was nowhere near destroyed.
A nudge from the force caused Charlie to gasp and swear again. She turned and stalked back to Dooku's prone corpse. Gritting her teeth against what she was about to do, she searched his pockets until she found a mini projector. Touching the body of the man she'd just killed was pushing it. She was grateful that she had found what she was looking for quickly.
She paced back to Yoda, and knelt to show him what she'd discovered. In the last meeting she'd had with Sidious and Dooku, Sidious had mentioned the plans for the new super weapon on Geonosis. The Force nudge had given her the reminder she needed to find them.
"What is it?" questioned Yoda.
Charlie pressed a button on the top, and a hologram of a giant ship formed.
"It is a super weapon." she replied. "Designed by and to be built for the use of the Sith and the separatists. I believe that this is the only copy of the plans, thanks to the destruction of this base. If my understanding is correct, Sidious will now move the separatists to Mustafar. He will be deeply enraged at the death of Tyranus and the loss of these plans. We have derailed his mission significantly."
"Secret and safe, keep them, until return to the temple we do." Yoda said.
Charlie nodded solemnly, acknowledging the trust he was giving her.
She informed Yoda of her ship's location and her plan to return to Coruscant. Confirming that a transport was indeed on its way for the master and two injured Jedi, she force-climbed down to her starfighter and R4.
The little droid beeped loudly, happy to see her alive. He'd followed her orders, and had Star Burst all ready for takeoff. Charlie waited, exhausted but still alert, until the transport ships started to leave the surface of the planet. Giving R4 orders to follow, Charlie sat back, allowing herself to relax only once they had cleared the atmosphere. Together, she and R4 followed the transport ships back to Coruscant.