Maya-202!

A Star Wars-Inspired Story

Episode I

The Two Prince War

Chapter XXIV

Stupidly Reckless

AN: Hi everyone. I'm so sorry with how long I've taken to write this chapter, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless. There's a lot of talking in it aha, and some things may not make great sense sorry, but I hope it's OK. Thanks.

Prince Onasius' Mansion, Iryx

Leo awoke in, what he presumed was the morning, still holding Maya in his arms from the night before. He exhaled tiredly, not really wanting to get out of bed yet, and snuggled up closer to her. She wriggled a little from feeling the warmth of his body as his skin contacted hers. He brushed her hair a little bit, very softly, comforting her as she stayed asleep, and she let out an unconscious sigh of relaxation. The male trooper, however, could not rest again right now. There was too much excitement left in his blood to go back to sleep – but that was matched with an equal amount of melancholy. He knew it was a one-time only thing, and that that was all it could ever be, if Maya was to train as a Jedi. However, that didn't stop him wanting it to be.

Another ten minutes passed before Maya finally woke up abruptly. Her head snapped up the moment she awoke, as if something had pulled her out of her slumber. Leo felt her shaking slightly in his arms.

"Maya? Are you alright?" he queried. She looked around, her long red hair messily trailing down her face, and met his eyes with a smile and a sigh of relief.

"I'm… fine, thanks, Leo," she said. "Are you?" Leo nodded in response with a grin.

"You were shaking like a leaf," he noted.

"Sorry… I just had a… bad dream, I suppose…" Maya revealed. Leo's expression fell flat in a matter of milliseconds.

"What was it?" he asked curiously. Maya opened her mouth as if she was about to tell him, but she stopped herself.

"I… I don't want to talk about it if that's OK… I'm sorry," she confessed, and Leo's heart sank. What she said suggested that he was involved, and the fact that she didn't feel like telling him slightly hurt – he didn't let that show on the outside, though.

"It's OK, don't worry," he promised. Maya smiled softly.

"Can you just hold me for a few moments before we have to go out for battle?" she asked. Leo returned her beautiful beam.

"Of course, Maya," he promised, and snuggled her close to his chest as she gradually stopped shivering, the warmth of her best friend's arms wrapped tightly around her torso like a cosy blanket.

*Cough cough* Artex the battle droid was awoken from his recharging slumber at the abrupt sound.

"H-huh?" he yelped, caught off guard by the noisy fit that was coming from someone nearby. It was coming from Aren. "Aren!" the droid said, leaping off his stand and to the side of the wounded Jedi. "You're awake!" he exclaimed.

"U…ugh…" Aren groaned, as his consciousness came flooding back to him.

"You're here!" the droid cried with joyfulness, then launched himself into the Jedi in a robotic hug. Aren puffed another few minute coughs as he felt the metallic limbs grab his back as he used the little energy he still had to sit up and face the droid formally. Aren panted in between a few chuckles.

"Yes… I am… buddy…" he said happily, patting the droid's back with his remaining arm. "Ugh…" he moaned once again, wincing in pain.

"Are you alright?" Artex chirped. Aren continued to grunt as he shuffled with visible effort in the hospital bed. He sighed.

"I… surprisingly, for someone who just lost an arm, I don't feel too bad…" the blonde Jedi mused. Artex nodded humanly.

"Good…" he said awkwardly, then, after thinking he underexaggerated with that statement, he amended it with the exclamation, "Who am I kidding, that's great!" Aren chuckled.

"W…where's everyone else?" he inquired, shuffling around in the bed again.

"Preparing for battle," intruded a third, different voice. Artex turned around to see who had just entered behind him, and Aren peered up from the droid to do the same. The announcing voice belonged to none other than Prince Onasius, the man Aren had been fighting not hours ago – it felt like a lifetime for the latter though, in all actuality. Aren appeared confused.

"Battle?" he questioned.

Onasius nodded with a stern, short, and simple, "Yes." The other, former, Jedi, pulled a face that silently yelled 'Are you serious?', and the prince picked up on this insightfully.

"Yes."

"Who with?" said Aren.

The prince posed with a humoured expression. "Who do you think?"

"What, Thomanius?" the blonde said in disbelief. "Are you-"

"Yes, I am sure, Aren. This needs to be done – my brother's antics have gone on for too long, and it's time I finally put an end to it," Onasius stated with stern determination. There was an all-too-familiar moment of silence between the three of them after he said that – neither the former Jedi nor the droid really knew how to respond appropriately. Finally, Aren replied.

"…Good. Let me come with you," he ordered. Onasius shook his head and frowned with disapproval.

"Absolutely not!" he denied swiftly.

"What do you mean? Why not?!" snapped Aren.

"Are you kidding me?! You just got your arm hacked off!" justified the prince.

"Sliced off," Aren corrected, pointing the arm he still had at Onasius, as if it really made any difference to the latter's argument. "And it doesn't mean I can't fight!"

"No, no, no, no, no," Onasius chided repeatedly. "Look, I understand you're angry with my brother. I am too. But you need to think rationally before rushing off to fight someone, Aren; that's what got you into this mess in the first place." Aren scowled. "I'm not trying to tread on your toes here – I'm just trying to help you y'know… stay alive, which is pretty rich and good from me, considering you attacked me recently, if I do say so myself," Onasius pointed out. Aren's scowl softened a little. He turned to his droid companion without another word to the prince.

"What do you think?" he asked. Artex took a quiet couple of seconds, as if he was thinking it over.

"I'm sorry, Aren…" he began, "but I must agree with his highness, on this occasion. It would be suicide if you went to fight this guy in your condition." Aren sighed, knowing that he was suggesting something stupidly reckless, and that both Onasius and Artex were right – Thomanius would eat him alive if they fought, no matter how much emotion Aren put into the battle.

"Fine. You're right," he groaned with reluctance, shaking his head, mostly at his own behaviour more than anyone or anything else. "I'll… stay here, I suppose…" he then said, still with a slight air of disgruntlement in his voice. Onasius smiled at the man, happy he had finally accepted what would be best for everyone in this case.

"Good. Thank you," he said.

"But I will fight in your place," said the battle droid boldly, like he was in a scene from some dramatic holomovie. Aren's mouth fell open a little.

"No… no, Artex, you really don't need to do that," he promised him, but the droid was having none of it.

"No! I want to finish what you – what he started, and give him a taste of revenge," revealed the droid.

"Artex, you haven't met my brother – he is not someone to be trifled with, and, no offense, but you're just a battle droid. He's Sith. He'll finish you in seconds, if even that, if you're not careful," warned Onasius.

"I know. I never said I would fight him directly, anyway; but it doesn't mean I can't help your troops. Aren'll tell you how useful I was earlier at helping him escape Grievous!" the B1 series mechanoid insisted, and his friend nodded to back him up.

"It's true," agreed Aren. "He's pretty handy to have around. In fact, I'd go as far to say I'm still alive because of the guy."

Onasius took in his words with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"OK. Fine. I will allow the battle droid to fight in your place. Besides, the more troops we have to surprise my brother, the better at this point," accepted Onasius.

Aren didn't say anything to the prince – instead, he turned to the droid, smiled, and mouthed a rather serious and sincere, "Thank you," to him.

"Aw. You're welcome," Artex loudly exclaimed for all to hear, a heartfelt (or motherboard-felt, for a droid) inclination in his tone. Aren's cheeks began to glow bright crimson, and Onasius chuckled at his embarrassment.

"Well, that was very touching and everything, but I'd better go and help some of the soldiers get ready," he planned, before swiftly and charismatically leaving the ward with a simplistically optimistic message of "Get well soon, I suppose," to Aren.

"Thanks… your highness," replied Aren gratefully. The silence enveloped the room for a moment once again, but before long, Aren began to talk to the droid another time. "Are you sure about this?"

"I've already told you, yes! Roger, roger!" replied Artex. Aren chuckled.

"Hadn't you better start getting ready for the battle too around about now, if you're that desperate to fight?" he reminded him. Artex did a sighing-like action, as if he was actually taking a deep inhale of air.

"I suppose I better had do."

The time for snuggling with friends under cosy duvet covers was over – now, it was all about preparing to fight, meaning that all different sorts of weapons were being pulled out of various wooden trunks as Maya and Leo sluggishly crept into the manor's main hall, all in an effort to put an end to the evil prince's plans for destruction.

"Woah. I don't think I ever realised how many of us there were until now!" Leo jibed loudly and light-heartedly.

"Well, you were one of the 'early' ones, Leo," announced another trooper, who'd sprung up from being crouched over a weapons chest. "Only number seventy-eight out of… well, thousands…" the trooper said. Leo instantly recognised him, even with his helmet on. A warming smile crossed Leo's face.

"Hey! Karlos-559! How'ya doing'? Haven't seen you since…"

"Since before the battle of Iryx, yeah. I'm not bad. I mean, I'm quaking all the way to my shebs here, but… I'll be OK," Karlos replied. He glanced at Maya, who'd been beside Leo the whole morning so far. "And, if what I've heard is true, you must be Maya-202," he noted, sticking out his hand.

"I am. It's nice to meet you. Leo's never mentioned you to me before," she said, shaking his hand.

"Nah, of course he hasn't. Too afraid I'll embarrass him," Karlos revealed.

"What do you mean?" asked Maya, after a curious scoff-like action.

"Let's not talk about that right now, we have a war to prepare for!" Leo intervened swiftly, nearly sweating with nerves. Maya chuckled.

"What?! What is it?" she pried with a wicked grin, now even more desperate to hear what he'd done in front of Karlos that was so mortifying. But the latter decided to adhere to Leo's wish.

"Nah. I'll spare him the embarrassment – for now," he teased. "Anyway, I heard you took down that rogue Jedi guy, didn't you?" he wondered. Maya nodded, trying not to seem too proud. "That must've been quite a tale. I was off world at that point, but when my squad and I got the transmission from his highness himself that we were off to put an end to all the craziness, I just had to come rushing back," he stated.

"Off world? Where?" Maya pondered curiously.

"A planet called Geonosis," said Karlos. It took a second, but the pieces clicked together in Maya's artificial brain, eventually.

"Geonosis? Wasn't that something to do with the-"

"The Clone Wars? Yes. We're not sure, but one of our 'underground' contacts, as we like to call them, suggested that they might be looking to team up with Thomanius's lot." Suddenly, Maya recalled something else she'd read about in a history holocron once.

"I thought the Geonosians were wiped out by the Empire, though…" she mumbled.

"They were, but apparently, one of them survived. Now, there are hundreds of the things living there again," Karlos told her.

"But why would they wanna team up with Thom?" Leo butted in.

"No idea. Perhaps they still have a grudge against the Jedi, and supposed that dealing with his highness first was a start to defeating them all? I dunno," the man shrugged doubtfully, even though it seemed like the most logical explanation one could've come up with using the information provided. Just then, another trooper came and requested that Karlos came with them.

"Oh, sorry. I'd better go," he uttered, and walked away with the other trooper without another word.

"Hmm…" Maya mused, "Interesting."

"So do you think we're gonna need more weapons, or are the ones we've got already enough?" Leo said, changing the subject.

"I don't know – depends on how many troops Thom has on Karanda, but I'm willing to guess that he'll have a lot for protection; so, I'd say we grab some of these beautiful babies," Maya suggested, hunkering over an open chest and pulling out a well-used DL-44 blaster pistol.

"Beautiful babies?" Leo cringed. "I don't think I've ever heard you describe a weapon that way before. Who do you think you are? Han Solo?" he teased. Maya rolled her eyes.

"You've never even met Han Solo – he was dead long, long before we were even born. You only know of his existence from stories passed on by Grand Mistress Rey," she pointed out.

"Guys!" intruded a comfortingly familiar voice, "Can we quit the bickering?" Both Maya and Leo whipped their heads around to see their beloved friend, Prince Onasius.

"Sir!" the two troopers both exclaimed, excited to see him. They saluted him.

"I've told you; you don't need to do that!" he reminded them.

"But we want to," reinforced Maya, in a tone that made it clear that she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. And so, the prince decided to park that topic right then and there.

"Are you two… ready for today?" asked Onasius.

"We…" began Leo, questioning whether to say anything about what happened between him and Maya the night before. He decided against it, as he presumed Onasius may have been able to sense his emotional state anyway, plus he didn't know how Maya would feel about the prince knowing of their… 'encounter', he thought was the best thing to call it. "Yes. I'd say we are. Right, Maya?" he said.

"As ready as we can be…" she replied. "But, honestly, I'm not sure what to expect," she added concernedly.

"What do you mean?" asked Onasius. Maya took a second to consider how she was going to reply.

"I dunno. I just mean that… well, I don't know if we'll all… y'know, survive…" she said, mumbling the last couple of words in her sentence. Before anyone else could say anything, Maya attempted to explain herself. "We got lucky when your brother invaded our planet last time. And by lucky I mean most of us barely made it out of that fight unscathed," she mentioned.

"You're worried for your fellow troopers?" Onasius inferred. Maya nodded – she was specifically worried about Leo, but she would've felt heartless saying that; force, she felt guilty for even thinking it. And then, another thought entered her head: 'I'll never be a Jedi if I'm feeling this way about Leo'. She knew she'd messed up last night, and she was cursing herself for letting it happen; but she'd needed it, even if it was just the one time. The question was, would she be able to forget – no, shove aside – her feelings for her friend if she started training as a Jedi? She'd thought she could before last night, however, now, she wasn't so sure…

"I can't say that we're all gonna make it, because I think that would be a massive lie," said Onasius, thankfully interrupting Maya's self-depreciating train of thought, "but I don't think we're all gonna die."

"Wow. That's really giving us hope," Leo stated sarcastically, and the prince rolled his eyes.

"If you would let me finish, what I was about to add was that I'm sure that you two'll be OK – you're both excellent soldiers - my very best. I don't know what I'd do without you," he claimed. Maya noticed how he'd emphasised the words 'you two'. He'd clearly sensed her shameful biggest fear of losing her best friend most and had kindly tried to soften any fears she had about this battle. Maya had to admit that she couldn't wait until she knew how to interpret her force sensations surrounding other people more accurately – it seemed almost like mind-reading to her. The prince, in an unexpected motion, put a hand on both Maya's left and Leo's right shoulders in a comforting grip, slightly shaking them gently, like a parent possibly would to a child before they performed on stage, as if to say, 'You'll be fine', then he simply walked off, presumably to talk to someone else or help them prepare.

After another few moments of silence between the two troopers, Maya suggested collecting some more weapons whilst they could.

"Sure," said Leo. "Then I suppose we'd better wait until we're told we can board the transport ships…" he then told her.

"I suppose we should…" Maya agreed.