Chapter 12

Aang, Exar, and Jo instantly had their lightsabers ignited yet again, facing their new threat. "Who are you?" Jo asked.

"I am Jayko Ren, son of Kylo Ren."

"His name is Benjamin Solo, Mr. Jayko Solo."

Jayko rolled his eyes under his helmet. "If you think using that name to annoy me, therefore making me falter in our fight, will make you win, you're dead wrong."

'Dang. He's good.' Jo thought.

"Now," Jayko said, taking a few steps and stopping, "Where were we?" He asked. "Ah, yes. Seize them. The master requests they be alive."

'Master?' The trio wondered.

The two big guards ran forward at them and swung down hard, creating craters in the ground where they hit. The trio swiftly dodged the attack and swung their lightsabers at their arms, but only scratched it.

"Well this is gonna be a problem." Jo said.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." Aang replied.

'Oh come on! I wasn't talking to you.' Jo complained to himself.

Exar charged at Jayko and lunged his blade forward; Jayko stepped aside, used his lightsaber to knock Exar's away, and kicked Exar, making him slide off balance.

"Oh this is gonna be fun." Jayko laughed.

Exar stood up straight and drifted his eyes aside, sensing Jayko's moves. He turned, swung his lightsaber around with speed, posed, and ignited his second blade. Exar dashed forward -slightly jumping- and spun around, surprising Jayko with a hard kick. Jayko stumbled back, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.

"Impressive." Jayko complimented.

"Boy, you ain't seen nothin' yet." Exar said, taunting him with two fingers, challenging him.

Anson flew around in space with Republic fighters, blasting TIE Fighters into pieces. "Man I hope our friends come through." He said.

"Uh, dude?" Juntah called from behind.

"What?" Anson turned his head and saw the crate Jo had with him.

"They left their crate."

Anson was distracted at the moment. He had been wondering what was in the crate, and with none of the Jedi around, he could have Juntah open it and have a peek. 'No. We're in the middle of a mission. Besides, I lost the wager.' Yet he was still tempted.

"You need to stay focused, Anson." Sim said.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you want to know what's inside the crate."

"Well, kinda. But I'm not the kind of person that sneaks behind somone's back to do something that I basically agreed not to do."

"Yet still you want to know."

"What can I say? A bounty hunter gets curious."

"Indeed. Turn the ship."

Anson turned, and luckily missed a shot a TIE sent to them. "Woah, what?"

"The force helps in many ways, but it can corrupt just as easily."

"Okay now I'm worried."

"Ha ha."

"You there, I'm seeing some nice flying." Rye commed them.

"Who is this?"

"I'm helping lead the Republic attack. Master Rye, you can call me."

"You a friend of Jo?" Juntah asked.

"Well yes, I contacted you earlier when the Jedi were with you."

"Is there a point to all this?" Anson asked.

"Yes, right. How well can you fight in person?"

"Pretty well, why?" Anson asked, dodging and blasting more TIEs.

"If you can fight in person, go ahead and join the other Jedi. We can handle everything out here."

"Not a chance. So far, I'm loving blasting these guys out of existence."

"What weapon systems do you have? Could they be used against star destroyers?"

"Oh yeah."

-Aang and Jo-

Aang and Jo were using all the strength and agility they had to survive the two mega-guards. Aang was using hiis lightsaber to dodge blaster fire and used the force and all the strength in his arms to push the mega-guard's arm away. Jo whipped at their arms, the guard simply smacking them away, surely leaving dents and scratches in his armor.

Aang swung his lightsaber around and jabbed at his stomach, leaving an effect on him. The guard stumbled back. He gave Jo a glance and shouted, "Their stomachs are their weak spots!" He then swung his lightsaber around and went for it again.

"Guards, you know what to do." Jayko said, blocking attacks from Exar.

Suddenly, blocks of metal formed around the guards' hands and any exposed area on their armor started glowing. Then they started fighting at a faster pace. Aang and Jo were forced to back up.

Exar took notice as his blade was held down by Jayko's. "No!" Exar reached out to try to do something with the force, but was pushed down by Jayko. He was putting more and more pressure on Exar's lightsaber, as he pushed with two hands; Exar was only holding up with his mechanical arm while his other was pinned down by Jayko's metal boot.

"You're not going to win!" Jayko growled.

Exar watched as the guards got the better of his team, knocking them down and sending their lightsabers out of reach.

"You're no match for the dark side!" Jayko added.

Aang and Jo prepared for the guards' quick-coming final blow as they raised their fists above their heads and swung down. Then, electricity spewed out everywhere, attacking the guards and making them stumble down. Aang and Jo looked up and saw Exar standing above Jayko, who was without his helmet, on his back, and crawling backwards. Only, Exar's eyes were -again- green and misty. "Oh no." Aang muttered fearfully.

Mirtis had both ends of his lightsaber ignited, and was creeping up to Jayko, slowly spinning his blades around with intent to scare Jayko. Once Jayko had backed up to the wall, Mirtis raised his arm to strike him down.

"Exar!" Mirtis turned and growled.

"You of all should know who I really am." The multi-voice said.

"I do. And it's not this."

"It is me." Mirtis said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jayko attempting to move out of the way to escape, but Mirtis sucker-punched him with his metal arm, knocking him unconscious. "I was born this way. Exar Sunrider was a result of the light side invading my mind."

"Your mind. Yes! That's you. You are Exar and -hate to say it- Mirtis."

"What's your point, Jedi?"

"Exar was not this monster I see before my eyes. He wouldn't want to take a life the way you were about to. That's not how we let our enemies die. Just leave him here and we can all leave without getting blood on our hands."

Mirtis's expression seemed unimpressed, then he said, "I like my idea better." He then raised his lightsaber to strike Jayko, but Jo had already knocked him unconscious... again.

'Master Rye to Aang. Repeat: Master Rye to Aang. Do you copy?' Rye called via comlink.

"Aang here." Aang replied. He looked at Jo and mouthed, 'Get Exar and let's go.'

'The mission is close to success. Where are you?'

"We're onboard the lead star destroyer; our mission is successful, and we're heading back."

'Already?'

"Yeah, why?"

"Because we came to help." Juntah spoke up, startling the Jedi. There stood Juntah, Sim, and Anson.

"Oh, glad you're here. Take Exar to the ship." Jo said, giving Exar to Juntah.

"Did things get too complicated?" Anson asked.

"Almost. And judging by the boom I just heard, we should be going." Aang suggested.

"Good idea." Anson said as they all started running.

"Man, where are all the stormtroopers?" Jo asked, looking around.

"We took 'em out." Anson answered.

"Nice!"

The attack outside was closing to an end; several TIEs, Republic fighters, some star destroyers, and Corellian cruisers were gone. Things were looking up for the Republic, so Rye, Ephraim, and Erickson had their ships focus all fire on the last three star destroyers. "Master Rye to Aang, the lead star destroyer is about to go down, get out of there!"

'We're in our docking bay, and on our way. Just try not to shoot us.'

"What have I told you about 'trying'?"

The transmission ended before a reply came.

"Hello?"

The crew entered Anson's ship quickly. "Everyone buckle up!" Anson shouted.

"Wait! We have ships. Take Exar."

Sim dragged Exar up to a chair and strapped him in. Aang hopped into Exar's starfighter and turned it on. He hovered above the ground and quickly attatched the other two fighters to the side of Exar's. All ships in the bay sped out into space. They luckily avoided most of the baster fire that came their way; Anson's ship got clipped in the back and a hole opened up, creating a vacuum into space. Everyone was holding on for their life, except for Exar who was safely strapped. It took Anson a lot of strength to get the ship into the docking bay of the main Republic ship. Once they landed, the team quickly scurried out of their ships and met in the bay.

"You guys alright? We saw your ship get shot." Aang asked hastefully.

"We're all okay." Anson said as he was dragging Exar out.

"Jo, I sincerely hope you didn't give him a concussion."

"Relax, I control my punches."

"Alright, well let's get Exar to a table -poor guy- and meet with the leaders."

"Okay! Man, this has been a somewhat good day."

"Indeed, we may have just stopped a war."

"That's what we thought when we thought we took care of the stormtroopers on Kamino."

"Ha ha." Aang laughed with a hint of sarcasm.

Erickson and Ephraim contacted Rye shortly after the Republic ships entered hyperspace after dealing with the remaining star destroyers. "Heeeey! We did it! We may have just prevented a war." Ephraim exclaimed.

Rye and Erickson chuckled, "Just maybe. You guys all okay?"

"Yeah, but we lost many men today."

"Well today, they will be remembered as heroes."

"Then we need to get some rest. These past few weeks have been tough." Erickson said, rubbing his shoulders.

"Indeed, we will have our well-earned rest soon."

"But I see a cause to celebrate." Ephraim said.

"That's for the Republic to decide."

They all shared a laugh, before Rye finished, "The force is with us."

And they sped off to Coruscant.

In the wreckage of the warzone...

(See the chapter on Archive of Our Own to see the mini comic to be seen here)