Chapter 163: Point of No Return
You must trust in others, or success is impossible.
Recap: Mission accomplished! Colonel Gascon and his droid squad steal an encryption module needed to crack a Separatist code and stop an impending attack on the Republic. After surviving The Void and escaping the hostile planet of Abafar, our heroes finally appear to be headed in the right direction.
After escaping from Abafar, the droids and Colonel Gascon headed to the Republic cruiser orbiting the planet.
"Hmm, looks like the Jedi cruiser is expecting this shuttle. Well, I'm sure there's someone aboard who can put this encryption module to good use," stated Gascon as he addressed the group of droids. "Well, soldiers, this is the end of the mission. Colonel Gascon has succeeded. R2, contact the bridge. Tell them I request a meal with the captain. Nothing too fancy, and, uh, I don't eat bantha."
R2 responded to the colonel as he could not communicate with the cruiser.
"What do you mean you still can't make contact?" responded Gascon.
"I have got a bad feeling about this, Colonel," said WAC as he came onscreen from within the cockpit.
"Something is not right," chimed in TS-01 as she ran some scans.
The shuttle was entering the cruiser's hangar; however, nothing was on. It was nothing but pitch black and dark as the shuttle descended.
"Snogwash! It's probably just the effects of The Void. All that, uh, magnetic disruption messed up his circuitry." said Gascon to the rest of the astromechs. "I will not allow your frivolous worrying to undermine this... this glorious moment! I expect a hero's welcome, not to mention my inevitable promotion to P1 Brigadier!"
Colonel Gascon hopped inside BZ as the lid closed behind him. The astromechs were now heading to the hangar door as the shuttle landed. WAC and TS-01 pushed some buttons on the control panel as they got up and began to head down to the hangar. The ramp was opening as all the astromechs stood in a row. The group of droids then began to file off the ship individually.
"Wow. They really went overboard on the welcoming committee," said WAC, commenting on how nobody was present. QT gave a response. "Good question, QT. Why are there not any other shuttles or crew members?"
"Well, everyone's probably preparing to, uh... Well, they'll all want to be there when we break the Separatist code," said Gascon as he tried to explain why there seemed to be no one.
C4 stopped for a moment to look around and give a response.
"How should I know why all the blast doors are shut? That's a question for the captain of this ship and one I intend to ask just as soon as I find him," stated Gascon.
The group of droids soon passed through a set of doors as they arrived at the bridge. Once inside, there were tons of clones and navigators all about and communicating with each other.
"Sergeant, Colonel Meebur Gascon," stated the small military officer as he stood on top of BZ and made his presence known. "You have no doubt been expecting me. I am delivering the Separatist encryption module..."
The colonel pulled out the device as one of the clone navigators put his hand out. Gascon put the object in his hand as it fell through. That surprised everyone as the clone seemed to phase in and out of existence.
"Why... it's just a hologram," stated Gascon as his hand passed through the clone's hand, the hologram continuing to phase in and out.
R2 and the other astromechs rolled about, bumping into the other clones as they passed through them. Signaling that they, too, were holograms.
"What in the blazes is going on here?" wondered the colonel.
"I do not know, sir. But it appears we have just made the jump to hyperspace, which means somebody is navigating this ship," explained TS-01 as she looked out the window to see the ship enter lightspeed and travel through space.
R2 and the other astromechs all gathered on the bridge.
"You, droids! What are you doing on our ship?" said a B1 droid as he was down in the terminals on the side of the bridge.
"Surrender, or you will be destroyed," said the tactical droid in charge.
"Battle droids!" shouted Gascon as he spotted them.
R2 and the others began to take evasive actions as the astromechs bumped the battle droids just as they were looking to climb up and knock them back down. Twilight's droid changed one of her hands to a blaster and fired at some of the droids before hitching a ride on R2's head as they all retreated.
"The commander wants the detonator taken to the control room."
"Roger, roger."
"Okay, let me just..."
"Lift with your legs! Lift with your legs!"
"Uh, heavy, heavy."
"Watch it, watch it! Look out!"
A group of B1 droids was trying to lift the detonator to their destination. However, one of them struggled to carry the bomb on his back while the other tried to guide and catch him should he drop the bomb to damage it potentially. At the same time, the Republic droids were in the hallways, attempting to escape from their foes.
"Good thinking back there. But next time I give the orders. Understood?" said Gascon as he hung onto BZ.
The B1 droids managed to reach the control room with the detonator.
"I got it. I got it. I don't got it! Yaah!" said the droid carrying the detonator on his back as he tipped forward. He fell to the floor with the detonator falling on top of his as he short-circuited.
Uh-oh," said one of the droids seated as they got up to lift the detonator while the other grabbed his comrade's leg to pull him out from under it.
"I wasn't programmed for this," the crushed battle droid groaned.
In the cockpit, another droid was crushed under the detonator as he toppled over.
"Stop! Which way are we going?" shouted Gascon as he and the Republic droids were still running.
"Down here!" said WAC as the battle droids fired from behind them.
The pit droid tripped as they headed to the control room, where the two B1 droids spotted them. R2 ran into WAC as he flung the pit droid into the face of one of them. The blue astromech activated his rocket boosters as he collided with the other battle droid to be followed up by one of the other astromechs to shock him.
The patrol of battle droids pursuing them turned the corner and spotted the control room.
"Have you seen the intruders?" asked one of them as WAC was using the upper body of one of the droids and hiding behind the side of the wall. He moved the body as if to tell the group they went down the hall.
"They went that way?" asked the droid as WAC waved the body about. "Roger, roger."
The group bout the lie as they all rushed down the halls.
"All right, something very strange is going on here. It appears this ship has been hijacked by Separatists," said Gascon as all the droids gathered around him.
R2 gave a response as he noticed the detonator the battle droids were carrying.
"What do you mean it doesn't belong here?" said Gascon.
Twilight's droid approached the detonator and quickly scanned with its eyes as the information about the device flashed on her screen.
"He is right, Colonel. This is not Republic technology. Not unless they have lowered their standards." said the small droid.
"Well, what exactly do you think it is?" asked the military officer as he stood on the viewing glass.
R2 responded as he gave his answer.
"A bomb?" shouted WAC as he was worried.
"What kind of a bomb? Is it on? How long do we have? Talk to me!" said Gascon as he was in a state of panic.
"I do believe the bomb is armed. Nor is it the actual bomb," said TS-01 as she did some more scans on the device to see that it wasn't set to be rigged.
R2 was able to back up her claim as he did more scans to show that the ship itself was the trap.
"What do you mean the ship is a bomb? How can the entire ship be a bomb?" shouted Gascon.
Twilight's droid approached the console and pushed a button. The hangar below them began to set off its alarms as they whirred and buzzed. Red lights flashed as the docking bay doors opened, and tons of canisters were inside. All contained Rhydonium, and Gascon was stunned when he saw them all stacked up.
"Mother of Kwath... There must be enough Rhydonium in here to blow up the entire Republic fleet."
"According to my calculation, Colonel. There is enough for not just the entire Republic fleet but the Republic itself," said TS-01, as the Separatists could win the war with just this one move.
The cruiser was still traveling through space as the colonel had been pacing back and forth. The droids gathered before him while waiting for what he should suggest next.
"I don't know what any of this means, but I want off this ship immediately. My mission is over. I had no orders to stop Separatist piracy or disarm massive, titanic-scale bombs!" stated Gascon as he had enough detours from his original mission.
C4 responded to the colonel.
"C4 has a good point. If we do not stop this ship before it explodes, it could cost the Republic thousands of lives," translated WAC.
"Pure speculation. We're evacuating this ship, and that is an order!"
The droids all looked at each other when given that command.
"Um, sir," said TS-01 as she pointed to the window and what was happening outside.
"Oh, right. We'll have to wait to evacuate until the ship is out of hyperspace," said the colonel as he got on top of BZ's head and began to exit the control room.
"By then, it could be too late. Once we get where we are going, my guess is... kaboom!" exclaimed WAC as they began to follow the colonel.
Something was watching the droids exit the control room as they peeked from the corner. It dipped away just as R2 stopped. The blue astromech looked down the hall toward the thing that was watching them a moment ago. R2 let out a concerned and uneasy beep. He did notice the tail end of an antenna as it disappeared; the blue astromech turned and began to seek out who was watching.
The other droids were still following the colonel on BZ. They were passing another corridor, and the thing watching them was a rabbit droid; it observed the Republic droids and wrote some things down on its tablet. At that moment, R2 snuck up behind it and pointed its taser out as the rabbit droid raised its hands.
"Wait! I... no... okay, okay!" responded the rabbit droid as it complied with R2's demands and began to walk less it got shocked by the blue astromech.
Meanwhile, the others had managed to make it back to the hangar. They passed through the door, looking to return on their shuttle to prepare to leave when they exited out of hyperspace. QT turned to see that R2 wasn't with their group as he let that be known.
"I don't know, QT. Where is R2 gone now?" stated Gascon.
At that moment, the other door to the hangar opened a few meters from them. There was R2 as he still had his taser pointed at the rabbit droid walking in front of him. The pair were approaching the others as they wondered what was going on.
"What's going on? Who is this?" demanded the colonel.
"I am BNI-393, an LEP Servant Droid. My master called me Bunny," responded the rabbit droid.
"And where is your master?" asked Gascon.
"He was killed when the Separatists took control of this ship," responded Bunny.
"Why were you hiding from us?"
"At first, I did not know if I could trust you. Then I was not sure you would believe me. Once you saw the truth, I was simply hoping you would abandon ship and take the rest of us with you."
"Rest of you? You're telling me there's more Republic crew members on board?" said Gascon with some hope as Bunny nodded.
Back on the ship's bridge, one of his comrades approached the tactical droid in charge of the plan as he passed through the holograms.
"Did you destroy the intruders?"
"Uh, no," responded a B1 battle droid.
"There are Republic droids on this ship that could ruin our plans. You will search the entire ship until the intruders are found and report back to me," said the tactical droid to the object he was holding. He dropped it as it transformed into a buzz droid.
The buzz droid took off to do its mission. Meanwhile, Bunny led the group of Republic droids in the hangar to where the others hid. They soon arrived at the shuttle they came in, which got Gascon to do a double take.
"Is this a joke? The rest of the crew is in our shuttle?" exclaimed Gascon to the rabbit droid.
"I told them to wait inside and that we would be leaving as soon as we came out of hyperspace," stated Bunny as she got onboard and entered the shuttle's docking bay. "You can come out now. It is okay."
Soon some shadows began to move. They stepped into the light, and it was revealed to be more Republic droids, as they all spotted Bunny.
"These are the other crew members?" said Gascon as he had more droids.
"As you can see, none of us can pilot the shuttle, which is why we needed you," responded Bunny.
"Why you need me. Hi, there. I am the pilot." WAC introduced himself to Bunny.
While the Republic droids gathered around to talk, the buzz droid sent by the tactical droid was shown. It was on some of the railings above them as it began to spy and listen in on their conversation.
"What is this Separatist plot? I do not know the details. I was only able to steal the coordinates of their target." stated Bunny.
"Target? You mean they aren't just planning to blow up this ship?" said Gascon as he ejected from BZ to stand on a mouse droid.
"I do not believe so. The coordinates are a space station in the Carida system," responded Bunny.
"What? That's the site of the Republic Strategy Conference!" exclaimed Gascon.
R2 responded as to how Gascon knew about that.
"How do I know? I was putting the finishing touches on a report for that conference when I was assigned this mission," stated Gascon as he jumped off the mouse droid to pace back and forth before the audience of droids. "The Jedi Council will be there, along with Republic officers from around the galaxy and... What the... The Separatists are going to ram the station with this ship!"
All the droids let out concerned beeps as R2 suggested something.
"I agree. We have to do something, R2. See if you can send a transmission to the Republic so we can warn them." stated Gascon.
"It is no use. We have tried that. All transmissions from this ship are being blocked." stated Bunny, as they could not warn the Jedi about the incoming bomb.
R2 responded to that.
"Hmm, you're right. We can't just sit here and do nothing," said Gascon as he got on top of BZ. At that moment, the buzz droid spying on them began to move. Gascon noticed it out of the corner of his eyes. "Where's he going?"
"Uh-oh. That buzz droid is not with me," stated Bunny.
"It must be a spy!" exclaimed WAC as the buzz droid disappeared.
"Stop that droid!" shouted Gascon.
The astromechs all began to give chase. Twilight's droid took aim as it changed one of its hands to a blaster and fired. The buzz droid dropped from the ceiling and continued to run. R2 tried to use its taser to shock it but evaded the electric shocks.
The buzz droid turned into a ball and began picking up speed and bouncing. R2 activated his rocker boosters to be able to stay on its tail. TS-01 fired the grappling hook she still had on her wrist and attached it to the back of her blue friend and was now skiing behind R2 as he was still chasing after the buzz droid ahead of the others.
R2 was still trying to shock it while TS-01 tried to shoot it, but the buzz droid was pulling evasive maneuvers. The buzz droid approached a door as it entered the room which housed the Republic cruiser's gun batteries. The buzz droid hid behind one of them as R2 and TS-01 entered the room. Soon the others filed in.
"Where'd he go? We've got to find him!" stated Gascon as the pair scanned the room for the buzz droid.
It was moving under them as it prepared to head out the door.
"I do not know. I do not see him anywhere. Uh, Colonel... I think I see him." said WAC as he turned to see a buzz droid. Behind them, more began to appear. "I think I see a whole lot of him."
"It's a trap!" shouted Gascon.
All the buzz droids gathered began to jump the Republic droids as they tried to shake them off. Twilight's droid tried to shoot any in her sight as they began to jump and dogpile on her. The buzz droids tried to take down the small robot but couldn't penetrate through the Equism she was made up of. They all began to shock her to take it down; the energy from the shocks was now being stored up as it piled on. Soon it reached its limit as the energy stored up was released, pushing the buzz droids off her.
The princess' droid was unharmed and unscathed as the Equism provided the perfect defense against the buzz droids. With the others, the buzz droids managed to take down one of the Republic droids as he fell, and the others gathered around it. R2 activated his rocket boosters as he began to fly about the buzz droids and spilled oil on them before setting it off with one of his boosters.
The oil turned into fire as it was now burning the buzz droids. A ring of fire surrounded the Republic droids with the buzz droids.
"Good work. You've established a perimeter," said Gascon as the ring of fire kept the buzz droids at bay... for now.
"There are still more coming! Please tell me you have a brilliant strategy, Colonel!" stated WAC as he was panicking.
More buzz droids were piling in as there were too many to deal with.
"I don't know! There's just so many of them!" shouted Gascon.
BZ then responded to him.
"What do you mean, "get out"?" said the colonel as he did what the astromech said and got off him. "All right, what are you going to do?"
BZ responded.
"You are going to open the airlock? Are you crazy, BZ?" exclaimed WAC.
The astromech turned, charged through the flames, and crashed into several buzz droids as they all jumped and began dismantling him. He crashed into the side while struggling to lock into the socket while the buzz droids continued to damage him. He found the hole and began to open the door.
"Everybody, magnetize your feet! Lockdown!" ordered WAC as the droids all turned the magnets in their feet to stick to the ground.
"BZ! Magnetize! Magnetize!" shouted Gascon to the astromech as the buzz droids tore him apart. He managed to open the airlock.
"No!"
The space vacuum began to suck the buzz droids along with BZ as the astromech didn't have a chance to magnetize his feet and was sucked into space as he drifted about until he was out of sight. The others held on as the buzz droids burning alive also began to be caught in the wind tunnel.
"R2, close the door! Close the door!" shouted Gascon as he tried to hang on.
The blue astromech used his rocket boosters as he reached the door socket and plugged in. He managed to close the door as the vacuum stopped. The other droids approached the nearby window as they gave sad whirs, knowing what BZ did.
"Poor BZ. You will be missed, soldier," said Gascon.
R2 responded.
"R2 is right. Colonel, would you say something to honor this heroic sacrifice?" translated Bunny.
"I suppose that's appropriate. I'll have to make it quick because we don't have much time," stated Gascon as he cleared his throat to give some words of honor about BZ.
"When this D-Squad started our mission, I had doubts. Grave doubts that we would ever survive, let alone succeed. But we worked together. We didn't give up hope. We showed courage in the face of death. It shocks me to say this, but we make an excellent team. Now we've lost one of our members... BZ. But we must remember. BZ sacrificed himself for us. That's what a good soldier does sometimes. The only way to honor that sacrifice is to stop this ship and prevent the Separatists from taking any more Republic lives. Are you with me?"
The droids all gave sounds as they showed their support to the colonel.
"Observation: An inspiring speech is power. Further observation: No control who lives, who dies, and who tells your story," stated TS-01 as she recorded that for her memory banks to process.
"Have the buzz droids reported back in yet?" asked the tactical droid as one of his men approached him.
"No, there has been no signal from them. In fact, I cannot even locate their signal anymore," responded a B1 battle droid.
"We must assume, then, that the buzz droids have failed. I want those intruders found before they ruin our plans," stated the tactical droid.
"Roger, roger."
"Roger, roger."
Meanwhile, the group of Republic droids was in one of the cruiser's corridors as they had a plan.
"All right, everybody knows the plan? We get the injured droids to the shuttle and distract the battle droids while R2 goes up to the detonator and programs it to explode early. Hopefully, he can make it back to the shuttle, and we can all get off the ship before it blows up." stated Gascon.
R2 gave a beep as he understood and turned the corner.
"Good luck, R2."
The rest of the droids kept on going forward as they came to a hallway where to their right, were some battle droids who spotted them.
"The intruders! Destroy them!" shouted one of the B1 droids.
The colonel and droids all kept on moving to avoid being shot. One of the droids was at the end as he was nervous about entering enemy fire.
"You can make it!" encouraged Bunny as the droid began to roll forward into the line of sight. "Hurry! Hurry!"
The droid was about to make it when its head was shot off, and the rest of his body stood there. WAC began to push Bunny to avoid her being shot. At that moment, the cruiser exited from hyperspace and arrived at the space station. It was now on course to collide with the station.
"We have our target in sight," said one of the battle droids.
"Full ahead. Ramming speed. Evacuation plan is now under way. I will go to the detonator and start the countdown." said the tactical droid as he began to exit the bridge along with the other battle droids looking to escape from the cruiser.
In the station, Obi-wan and Anakin were at the bridge, the latter pacing back and forth with a displeased look.
"The worst part about our job are these boring strategy conferences."
"Cheer up, Anakin. This is your chance to voice all your complaints about military protocol," stated Obi-wan to his student, knowing how he didn't like politics. "And it looks as though we can finally get underway. I will inform Master Windu the last straggler has arrived while you work on your attitude."
Obi-wan left as Anakin looked out the window to see the cruiser the droids hijacked coming at them.
"Isn't that ship coming in a little too fast?" responded the Jedi Knight as he saw the cruiser to which Obi-wan turned.
"There's the shuttle!" shouted Gascon as he and the other droids arrived at the hangar bay.
They entered just as the group of B1 droids chasing them entered another way and fired at them.
"Careful, you'll hit the rhydonium." said one of the battle droids to the other.
"Everyone, head to the ship! C4 and I will distract them!" instructed Gascon as C4 used his rocket boosters to fly above the group, diverting their attention from the others to allow them to get to the shuttle.
At the same time, R2 had made it to the control room; he saw the tactical droid rig the detonator.
"You are too late. Once the detonation sequence has commenced, there is no stopping it," said the tactical droid.
"Now let's see if R2 made it to the detonator," stated Gascon as C4 hovered in place, allowing the colonel to look into the control room. He saw the blue astromech circling the detonator as the tactical droid tried to grab him. "R2 is in trouble! Come on! R2 will never make it back to the shuttle in time. We've got to delay the launch."
"The cruiser has not slowed its pace," said Admiral Tarkin.
"Have you been able to contact their captain?" asked Storm as they all looked out the window to see the cruiser approaching them.
"Z9 says he cannot make contact with anyone.
"Where's R2 when I need him?" said Anakin, unaware that his astromech was closer than he thought.
All the droids made it to the shuttle as WAC and TS-01 were in the cockpit, preparing the ship for liftoff.
"We've got to regroup and head back for R2," stated Gascon. QT responded to that. "Well, we're changing the plan! No one gets left behind, and we're not leaving until I say so!"
"Prepare for liftoff!" said WAC as he got the engine ready and pushed the button to make the shuttle rise.
The shuttle was now leaving the hangar as the pit droid didn't hear the message from the colonel and got them away from the cruiser. Back in the control room, R2 managed to bash the tactical droid into the wall as he approached the device and began to speed up the process.
"No. It is too soon," said the tactical droid.
"We are scanning a large amount of rhydonium on that ship!" said Admiral Tarkin.
"It's a bomb," said Anakin.
The bomb was now going off rapidly as R2 made the final adjustments. Soon the entire room began to explode as it headed toward the control room. From the space station, the Jedi and clones saw the explosion occur. The explosion caused a massive reaction as everybody in the station felt the shockwave from the aftermath. Everyone rocked and fell over. Luna quickly grabbed Storm into her arms as they crashed into a wall, with the Jedi Master using herself to cushion the fall for her student.
"Luna!" said Storm as he looked up at his master.
"I'm alright," said Luna as she smiled, knowing her student was safe.
"And you thought this conference would be boring," said Obi-wan to Anakin as they got up from the floor.
"Mayday! Mayday! Space station Valor, this is Colonel Meebur Gascon. Can anyone hear me?" said the coms.
"We read you, Colonel. This is General Skywalker. What's going on out there?"
"Slight change in our mission, General. The droids and I were stowaways on that cruiser," said Gascon.
"Where's R2?" asked Anakin.
"I'm sorry to report he was on that ship when it blew up, sir. He just saved all your lives," said Gascon, knowing R2 sacrificed himself to save everyone.
"I want a salvage team out there now!" yelled Anakin after hearing about R2.
"Yes, sir," responded a clone as they scrambled to comply with the Jedi Knight's orders.
The field of debris from the cruiser that was blown up was shown. Among the space junk was a destroyed R2, as he was missing parts. A salvage ship was shown passing as a spotlight shined down on the destroyed droid.
"R2!" stated Anakin.
The blue astromech was shown as he was upside but mostly put back together with a fresh coat of paint. The crew was able to fix up the droid as he maintained his memory and just needed a bit of fixing up.
"You made it, buddy!" said Anakin, glad his droid was alright. R2 gave a response to his friend. "Hey, you're a big hero. There's someone here who wants to speak to you."
"R2D2, are we glad to see you," said Gascon as he hopped off QT to address the blue astromech.
"I am most glad."
"Quiet, WAC. I'm talking here."
"Yes, sir, Colonel."
"In truth, I might just be a map reader, and I don't have much battle experience, but, R2, you are the bravest droid I have ever met. You all are. I would be proud to serve with you droids anytime, anywhere." said Gascon to all the droids before him as he saluted them.
"Oh, I am glad to hear you say that, Colonel, because I hear we have been assigned to the same platoon! We will be seeing each other every day for the rest of the war!" said the pit droid as he seemed happy about that.
"That's great, WAC," responded Gascon begrudgingly, chuckling as the droids cheered.
Twilight's droid disappeared as she did some final recordings detailing her journey.
"Update. Mission success. The module is in the hands of the Jedi and Republic. More information has been filled in. A job well done, I believe." said the small droid.
She continued walking as she was making her way to Storm. The small droid hopped on some crates as she got on the worktable before the boy.
"Alright, let's see here," said the teen as he was doing a checkup on the droid for Twilight.
Luna approached her student as she noticed him working on Twilight's droid.
"Alright, how does that feel?" asked Storm as he held a wrench.
"I do not feel anything. I am a machine," responded TS-01.
"No, I meant, how does it function?" clarified the boy.
The droid ran a diagnostics scan of itself as its systems worked properly.
"Systems functional," said the droid.
"Nice. Hope Sparky appreciates that," said Storm as he grabbed a rag and cleaned the droid's body.
"I see you took the librate of fixing Twilight's droid yourself, hmm," said Luna with a stern look that Storm didn't see because he was busy polishing the droid.
"Yeah, she's gonna wonder how her droid ended out here. No doubt, she's gonna check the memory banks," said Storm.
"So... you know her well. Maybe... too well," said Luna.
Storm sighed as he knew what his master was saying. He put the rag down and turned to look at her. Twilight's droid saw this and began to record.
"Master..."
"You must learn to let her go!" said Luna. "You are being groomed to be my replacement, Storm. You are being groomed to be a Jedi Master. You are being groomed to fulfill your destiny! And your destiny does not involve, Twilight!"
The Jedi Master stared down her apprentice.
"You are groomed to be my successor. Yet, you haven't been able to prove that you're ready because of her! She is holding you back. Twilight is stopping you from achieving your full potential. You are letting her affect your mind. She has you in the palm of her hand." stated Luna.
"Master, I'm not..."
"Do not lie to me. Especially to your mother!" the woman gave a firm look to her son as she wasn't one to mess around. "You can never give Twilight the things she wants. It's impossible, so stop trying."
Storm just remained silent as he let Luna's words sink in.
"I have put together a test for you. You will be observed by the other members of the Jedi Council. There you will be judged if you're ready for the next step. I expect to see you there in five minutes. Am I understood?"
"Yes, my master," responded Storm.
The boy sighed as he approached the workbench. He put his hands on the table with his head down. Storm lifted it as he looked over at Twilight's droid, who was still watching him. The boy did one last tweak as he shut off TS-01 to allow her time to recharge. The Jedi Knight walked away as Twilight's droid was shown on the workbench. While turned off, the droid still had the Storm and Luna recording in its memory core.
You are groomed to be my successor. Yet, you haven't been able to prove that you're ready because of her! She is holding you back. Twilight is stopping you from achieving your full potential.
Author's Note: So ends the arc that George Lucas considers his favorite. And so the droids have finally fulfilled their mission. Also, a little insider info, the explosion that occurs in this episode, was the biggest one they had ever done in terms of animation for the show at the time. And that's using real-world scale metrics. And it seems that there is more happening with Luna, getting Storm to listen to her about letting go of his attachment. And according to the chronologicalorder, is the last episodetaking place in the second year of the Clone Wars, next episode will begin the final year of the war. As always, leave a review expressing your thoughts and comments.