Clan of Three

Part Thirty-Six

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Rael prowled around the perimeter of the ruins as the fight waged on below. She kept catching glimpses of Din, Fennec, and the unknown man, who had reappeared in the armor, taking down trooper after trooper. So far, the three had managed to keep any attackers from making it to the ruins.

Suddenly, a small wave of exhaustion through the Force crashed into the Jedi. She whirled around to see Grogu had broken out of the trance and was now slumped on the seeing stone.

"Kid!", She called and hurried to him. Rael crouched down and brush his cheek gently. He was breathing steadily, but was out cold. "Good job, Grogu...", she whispered as she smiled down at him. But her attention was torn away from the small creature when a large laser-bolt streaked through the sky and hit the Razor Crest below. The ship went up in a fiery ball of flames. "Oh Force...", Rael breathed as she stood up.

"Rael! Rael, come in! There's a cruiser up there! We're coming to get you two!", Din voice crackled over the comlink. Rael looked up into the sky, shielding her eyes with her free hand, as she looked for the cruiser. "Is that an Imperial cru- Oh shit...", she began to say back, but trailed off as she saw four figures flying towards her. "What? Rae, what is it!", Din demanded, but Rael didn't have time to reply as the hulking droids landed around her and Grogu.

Rael activated her double-bladed saber and jumped on top of the seeing stone, doing her best to shield the child. Two of the droids began to shoot at her as the other two slowly approached. Oddly enough, their shots were set to stun... Rael did her best to keep her breathing steady as she kept her saber moving and shifting her stance. "Rael!", she heard Din's voice through the comlink, but there was no way for her to answer him.

"Oh, c'mon!", she growled as the deflected stun bolts dealt no damage to the droids. Grogu let out a soft cry as he slowly awoke and pushed himself to sit up.  "You need to be ready to run, Grogu!", she shouted down to him as the droids were only a few feet away. The kid let out another soft cry, but Rael didn't hear. The droid on het left was able to hit her with a stun-bolt to the leg.

"Kriff!", she shouted and dropped to one knee. The Jedi continued to deflect their shots, but her movements were growing sloppier. The effect of the stun-bolt was slowly creeping up her legs and towards her arms. "Kid! Rae!", Din shouted as he and Fennec appeared over the ridge.  If she had been at her full strength, the small glance she spared in his direction wouldn't have been an issue, but she wasn't...

Both droids were able to hit her in the side and back with stun-bolts. Rael let out a groan as she went rigid and her saber fell from her hand, still ignited. Her vision started to blur as she felt herself fall from the seeing stone. She could have sworn she heard Din shouting something and a blurry green face peering down at her, before cold metal hands roughly gripped her arms. 

Then everything went black.

~~~~~

The first thing Rael registered as her eyes fluttered open was the artificial light shining down on her. The Jedi sat up quickly, only to find herself in stun cuffs. Her confusion was interrupted by a stormtrooper crashing to the floor in front of her. "What the kriff.", she muttered and looked around to find herself in an eerily familiar prison cell. Another stormtrooper being thrown into a wall made her look to her right to see Grogu with his small hand outstretched.

The cell door slid open to reveal Moff Gideon and two guards. But Rael's attention remained on the kid as the dark side swirled around him. "No, Grogu!", Rael shouted as a trooper was lifted into the air, struggling to breath. She lunged forward and gripped his tiny hands in her binded ones. Grogu looked up at her as he took a few deep breathes.

"He's gotten very good at that. But it makes him oh-so sleepy.", Moff Gideon chided as Grogu leaned against Rael's side. The young woman glared at the man as he slowly approached and crouched in front of them. "It looks like he could use a nice long sleep...", Gideon said before backing away and nodding at a stormtrooper. "No, wait!", Rael shouted, trying to move in front of Grogu, but the trooper still hit the kid with a stun-bolt. "Put him in shackles. When we get out of hyperspace, send an encrypted message to Dr. Pershing. Let him know we have got our donors." Gideon order a trooper and officer.

"You have no idea what you're doing. You will have to deal with the wrath of the Republic!", Rael hissed as she stood up from the metal bench. Moff Gideon turned back to face her with a calm smile. "Commander Kenobi, you underestimate the power of the Empire. As much as you and the rebel scum would like to believe we have been wiped out, we are stronger than ever.", he told her, still wearing a smile.

Rael jutted out her chin as she refused to break eye contact with the man as he came to be face-to-face with her. "I'd get comfortable if I were you.", He said in a condescending tone. Rael balled her hands into fists as he turned to walk away once more, but the man stopped halfway. "In fact, let us help.", he said before nodding to one of the troopers, who then shot Rael with a stun-bolt. The young woman dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

~~~~~

"Sir. You should see this.", An officer said to Moff Gideon. The man turned to face them and the officer activated a hologram over the main console in the control bridge. "Moff Gideon.", the image of the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, said. Gideon's jaw tensed at the hologram as he took a few steps forward. "You have somethings I want. You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not. Soon, they will be back with me.", Djarin's voice rang out.

"They mean more to me than you will ever know.", The Mandalorian growled out before the hologram ended. Moff Gideon glared at where the man's image had just been. "Put the ship on high alert. They'll be coming for them soon.", Gideon ordered his officers. There were few yes sirs as they hurried off. "Bring Kenobi to the lab. We can start the sampling for the good doctor.", He said lowly, before storming out of the bridge with two stormtroopers hurrying behind him.

~~~~~

A/N

Shorter... But part 35 was longish and I wanted to do something to fill the gaps between episodes 6,7, & 8. The next part(s) will finish up season 2! Then I'll figure out how I want to do the episodes from The Book of Boba Fett while we wait on season 3 to finish up!! Thanks for sticking with me!! I appreciate it:)

- hawkins_2000