Flashback: (8 Years Ago)
Location: Kalevala
Aurora's Age: 13 Years Old
Third Person's POV
Aurora sighed in annoyance as Crashun stood before her with excitement gleaming through his blue eyes. Both were waiting for their parents to finish their annual Ruling Council Meeting, that usually took place within the palace in Sundari, but for some reason, the meeting was held in the palace on Kalevala. To pass the time, Aurora decided to hide-out away from the politics underneath her favorite tree in the gardens. She was rather happy, until Crashun decided to ruin her peace and walk up to her.
"What do you want?" Aurora asked in annoyance.
"I have to show you what my father taught me." He said with a small smile.
Aurora rolled her eyes. "Is it better than admiring nature?"
He nodded. "You actually might have an interest in this."
She sighed again. "What is it?"
"Watch." He said before placing handcuffs on his wrists.
Aurora immediately stood up. "Are you insane! Suppose you don't have the key, then what will happen?"
He laughed in amusement. "Relax Ro, I won't need the key."
She tilted her head to the side in confusion as she watched Crashun get out of the handcuffs without using a key.
"My father taught me this in case I'd get kidnapped and held for ransom…he said it's a good skill to have." He explained as he tossed Aurora the cuffs.
She caught them and inspected them.
"I wish my mother taught me something like that. If I ever get kidnapped and interrogated, I'll never get out." She said with a small sigh.
"I can show you…if you want." He offered and Aurora's facial expression lit up.
She nodded. "I'd like that a lot."
For the rest of the time as they waited for both of their parents, Crashun taught Aurora how to get out of handcuffs. Much to his surprise, she caught on rather quick, and within the hour, they were competing to see how fast they could get out of them. They did it so many times to the point that their wrists were getting raw from working so quickly to beat the previous time they had.
By the time the Ruling Council meeting was over, both Aurora and Crashun were back inside of the palace, hiding their wrists, which were so raw to the point that there was dried blood on them.
"Remember," He explained before going to find his father in the crowd of Ministers. "Don't show anyone you can do this…then they can take extra precaution against you."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that stupid."
"I didn't say you were." He countered.
She sighed in annoyance, before going to find her mother. "But you thought it."
Present Day
Location: The Citadel, Lola Sayu
Aurora's Age: 21 Years Old
Aurora's POV
I glanced at Obi-Wan and he glanced back at me as we both held our hands up. There was only about six droids present, and we didn't even need a full army to fight them. Surrendering wasn't the best idea. I tried to focus in on the sounds around us, and I heard wind flowing up above us, indicating that there are air vents and ducts above us, which also indicates that
"I have an idea." I whispered over to him.
"What?" He asked.
"Shoot the droids down and use the vents to get to the landing point where Artoo and Geenine are and wait for Anakin and the others there."
Obi-Wan did small nod and gestured to Piell, who immediately used the force to push the droids down.
"I thought we were surrendering." Cody asked in confusion.
"Plan B." I said as I ran past him down the corridor.
"Plan B?" Cody asked in confusion as he and everyone ran after me down the hall. "We don't have a Plan B!"
"We do now!" I exclaimed before coming to a stop at the opening to an air duct in front of us.
I turned around to face them and smirked.
"Gentlemen," I smirked gesturing to the air vent. "Plan B."
"This isn't going to work." Waxer said with a sigh.
"It's going to have to." Obi-Wan and Piell both replied as the three of us took the vent guard off, and ushered everyone in. Once we were all in the vent, Cody closed it and we all started walking more inward, making us go further away from the hallway that we were previously in, and eventually up above the hallways.
"I have to admit." Waxer said after a while. "This was a good idea Your Highness."
I smirked as we continued moving through the ducts. "Plan B, always go with plan B."
Eventually we all became silent after a while since there were droids patrolling in the hallway below us and the space was becoming more and more cramped. Eventually we made it to a vertical passage that led upward.
"This passage will get us near the landing pad." Obi-Wan explained before he started to climb up it.
The rest of us started to follow him.
I quickly glanced down at the shaft, that seemed to go on for miles.
"That's a long way down." I murmured before starting the climb upward.
Eventually Obi-Wan made it to a flat area where he could crouch down and contact Artoo and Geenine. The rest of us continued to climb up and just as Cody was beginning reach a flat area, the words that he shouted made my eyes widen in fear.
"PROBE!" Cody shouted.
Piell, acting quicker and smarter than all of us began to practically leap up the shaft, before using his lightsaber to cut the probe down before it could get away. He almost fell straight down the shaft but caught on to one of the levels that was below my position.
"Did you get it?" I asked.
He was about to answer me, but a noise caught all our attention. We were too slow acting against the Probe, as the security doors within the shaft began to close.
"Security doors!" Obi-Wan shouted. "Move, or you'll be cut in half."
I practically jumped across the shaft and into one of the flat areas, just as the doors closed, beating it just by a few seconds. The area was big enough so I could lay on my back to catch my breath, but I knew in the back of my mind, that there was no way we all could've survived it, even though I had hoped we all did.
"Where's Aurora!" I heard Obi-Wan shout from the other side of the door. "Did she make it?"
"We don't know sir." One of the clones replied.
"FIND HER NOW!" I heard him practically scream at the clones.
That's when I immediately sat up and started banging on one of the doors. Within seconds I heard Piell speak.
"Stand back." He instructed and I did so, before his green lightsaber blade cut through the blast doors.
"Are you alright Aurora?" He asked moving out of the way so I could climb out of the platform.
I nodded. "Thank you."
"Obi-Wan she's alright…not a scratch on her." Piell called up to him, and I saw Obi-Wan sigh with relief when he saw me.
"Aurora," He began with relief. "I was so worried that…"
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I almost died…it's not the first time. We need to keep moving."
I continued to climb up the platforms that were now cut through by Piell and Obi-Wan. No one replied, but I guess they all agreed with me, as they continued to climb as well. We continued to climb through the ducts, and eventually they became horizonal again, which was nice, but we were back to being in a crouched position. We eventually made it to the end of a duct, but this time, it overlooked the landing pad, where the shuttle was.
"I don't see Artoo." Cody began.
"Let me try Geenine." I said before activating the coms on my wrist. "Geenine, Geenine come in, Geenine? The one time I need her she doesn't answer."
"Something might've happened. We might need to make our way around to the other side and get a different view…this could be a trap." Obi-Wan explained before kicking the grate the opens to the outside.
Cody handed him a grappling cable, as he climbed down onto a small walkway that was below the duct, we all were in. Once it was clear, he signaled for the rest of us to come down. Once we all were on the ledge, we slowly made our way over to one of the ledges that were slightly below the landing pad.
"Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked into his coms.
In response, I was expecting Anakin to give a snarky reply, but instead I was heard with an unfamiliar voice.
"I must commend you on your escape tactics, but in the end, it was easy to predict your every move." The voice said.
Almost immediately, two automatic turrets turned around and aimed themselves at us, then several spider-like droids climbed onto the ledge, along with the blast doors opening and multiple commander-droids and droidekas came onto the ledge and had their weapons aimed at us.
"Fuck." I said in annoyance.
"Aurora, not now." Obi-Wan said in annoyance.
We then were handcuffed and pushed back into the Citadel, and eventually ended up in the command center, where the whole mastermind of this operation was waiting for us.
"Welcome back." He said in a mocking tone.
"I must say, you are not at all what I pictured for someone with such a soft voice." Obi-Wan replied making me stifle a laugh.
He growled in response to Obi-Wan's comment before walking directly up to Piell.
"I want your half of the information. Give it to me now, or I'll start executing your men!"
"This is war Sobeck." Piell replied. "We're all prepared to die to protect that intel."
Sobeck smirked before aiming his blaster at one of the clones before firing it and killing him. I quickly glanced at the clone as I was next to him before he aimed the blaster at my face.
"You were quite the talkative one." Sobek began with a slight laugh. "The Princess of Mandalore…such a shame to kill such a pretty face."
"You really think I'm scared?" I taunted. "I've had weapons pointed at my face before, had blasters in my mouth, had knives and swords against my throat."
During this entire time, I was slowly working my way out of the handcuffs that my hands were tied to around the back of my head.
"You are quite the naïve one…always so sure of yourself. And yet, here you are. Your hands bound, and ready to die just because one Jedi, won't tell me the information." Sobek replied.
I sighed. "That's where you're wrong."
"How?" Sobek practically snapped.
I moved my now loose hands in front of him and wiggled my fingers.
I smirked. "I'm not the one who's going to die today."
I immediately grabbed the blaster with my right before giving Sobek a swift kick with my left leg, which sent him flying across the room and into the window…unfortunately he didn't go out the window. The two commander droids then started to fire, and thankfully the idiot droids didn't take my vambraces off me, so as they fired, I immediately torched them using my flamethrowers, along with the other droids present, but I left Sobek unburnt.
"Plan C!" I said before running out of the room and everyone ran after me.
"Now we know why you call yourself Torch when you're on other assignments!" Cody explained.
"Where did you learn how to get out of a situation like that?" Obi-Wan asked as we continued running down the corridors.
"Long story, eventually we rounded a corner to a hallway where Artoo, Geenine, and the other battle droids were waiting for us.
"Geenine!" I exclaimed as she came rolling forward.
"Artoo, Geenine, we wondered where you'd been." Obi-Wan explained.
Artoo and Geenine both beeped in response before one of the reprogrammed battle droids began:
"The Commander is pleased to see you as well sir but would like to return to the shuttle now." The droid explained.
"I don't blame him." I said with a sigh.
Obi-Wan nodded in agreement. "Yes, I couldn't agree more."
"What about General Skywalker?" Cody asked as we started to walk down the hallway.
"Not to worry. He'll switch to Plan B." Obi-Wan explained.
I smirked. "See Waxer, there's always a Plan B."
Waxer nodded. "We're on Plan C, Princess."
I rolled my eyes. "Just enjoy the moment."
We continued to walk back to the landing pad where the shuttle was, and eventually we made it out onto the landing pad once again. We all sighed, and I knew in the back of our minds, we prayed that these battle droids that we had, could full the Separatist's battle droids. We all walked out of the hallway and onto the landing pad, toward the shuttle.
One of the Separatist's droids walked toward us. "Hold it, where are you going with these prisoners?"
"We're transferring them aboard the shuttle from the Citadel to Point Tarron." One of our droids replied.
"Point Tarron?" The enemy droid asked. "There's no outpost there."
"Princess, start thinking of a Plan D." Cody murmured, and I nodded very carefully.
"Uh, it's new." One of our droids replied and both Artoo and Geenine beeped in agreement. "We have orders, we're coming aboard."
The Separatists droids immediately stepped back and began to allow us to load onto the shuttle, but just as we were about to get on, one of the droids held us up and had one of his hand's up to his head. My eyes widened. Here we go again…Plan D.
"Wait." The droid instructed before Obi-Wan activated his lightsaber and sliced the droid down.
The droids operating the turrets then started firing at us, and the other droids that were present also started firing at us. All of us activated our weapons and began firing at them, but we were eventually led to hiding behind one of the large crates for cover, even though multiple droids were taken down. As more droids came out, Anakin, Ahsoka, Fox, Shock, the rest of the clones and the Captians aided our support, even though we were severely outnumbered.
"Sorry I'm late." Anakin explained taking cover next to Obi-Wan.
"How nice of you to join us." Obi-Wan replied sarcastically before turning to me. "Aurora, what's Plan D."
"Hold up." Anakin said putting a hand up before turning to me. "You guys are already on Plan D?"
I turned to him in anger, annoyance, and frustration. "WE'RE GOING TO BE ON PLANS EFG IF WE DON'T GET OUT OF HERE! WE NEED MORE ALPHABET!"
"The ship is surrounded!" Ahsoka explained.
"We need to launch a full forward assault and take that vessel." Tarkin explained and I rolled my eyes.
"We may have a bigger problem. Those turrets. If we don't take them out, they will use them to destroy the shuttle and prevent our escape." Obi-Wan explained before he and Tarkin got into an argument about how we should dismantle the turrets.
I looked at the shuttle before looking back to Fox.
"You," I instructed. "Come with me, come on!"
He nodded as we started running toward the walls.
"Fox, where are you two going?" Anakin asked as the two of us ran toward the wall.
"Plan D general!" Fox called back.
As we began to climb the walls to take out the turrets, several more droids came flying in on modified speeder-bikes. Thankfully, Anakin and the others had that handled, which gave us time to take out the turrets.
"Take a turret!" I instructed "And once you have it under control, take the other turrets down!" Fox nodded before we disbanded and started taking down any droids that came in our way on our way to dismember the turrets. I looked up and saw one droid got into the turret and began to aim at the shuttle. Seeing as it was our only chance at getting off this planet, I raced towards the turret as fast as I could. However, I wasn't fast enough. Just before I reached the turret, Echo had come from out behind one of the large crates and began firing at the turret in the hopes of distracting it to shoot somewhere else. Just as I reached the bottom of the turret the droid fired the turret at the shuttle causing it to explode and causing Echo to get caught in the explosion.
"ECHO!" I heard Fives call out.
In response I climbed the turret, shot down the droid working it, and immediately fired at one of the other turrets that was firing at the group. Fox had dismembered the other turret as well, but just as we finished, that's when we noticed that there was another clone lying next to Echo.
"Shock!" I murmured in disbelief before climbing down from the turret. Just before Fox or I could get to both Shock and Echo's bodies, more droids emerged from inside of the Citadel.
"We have to go now!" Obi-Wan instructed to the group, and we all ran away from the landing pad.
As we were running away, Obi-Wan patched a call into the Jedi council, I didn't hear the first part of the conversation, but I did hear him respond to Windu, Yoda, and Plo Koon.
"I'm afraid we've had a bit of a situation with the shuttle." Obi-Wan explained.
"By situation he means big explosion." Anakin explained before turning his head around to look at me. "Ro, start thinking of Plan E!"
"This day sucks." I said and Ahsoka nodded as she ran alongside me.
"You know what they say, 'Fifth times the charm'." Ahsoka said with a small smile making me want to either roll my eyes or burst out in tears…and honestly both would work right now. Eventually, we made it to a cave, far away from the main area where we were, but that didn't mean that there weren't droids around, as they probably sent every single battalion looking after us.
"We'll need to hold out until the council sends a ship." Obi-Wan explained.
Piell nodded. "Not a problem, we beat them once, we'll beat them again."
While everyone else was discussing how to get to the rendezvous point, I was with Ahsoka as we paced back and forth trying to figure out our own plan to get out of here.
"I'm officially out of ideas." I explained to her before sitting down.
"We're going to be fine." She explained as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay."
I shook my head. "I lost Shock, Fox probably hates me right now."
She shook her head. "I highly doubt that, but we need to keep moving to get out of here."
I nodded before standing up and looking toward everyone else. They all nodded towards Ahsoka and I before we all started to walk out of the cave, in the hopes that we'd all make it to the rendezvous point…alive.