Chapter 2 - The Rescue
"Be my pillow"
~*~
With a groan and an aching pain tearing through her head like an arrow, Aurelia gingerly awoke to a dark room, illuminated dimly by white lights built into the walls of the cell she was placed in. Her head swirled with confusion as her hands and feet were bound to a steel chair in the center of the small room. The ropes were tight and scratchy, slightly tearing at her skin as she moved about in their grasp. She yelped at the sharp pain that ripped through her abdomen as she moved the wrong way, tears beginning to prick at her eyes. Her position was uncomfortable and didn't aid any alleviation to the soreness. She grunted in frustration, unable to find a way out of the bondages that held her.
With the clanking of metal, the cell door in front of her opened, revealing an older man with a white beard. He was dressed in black robes and a brown cape draped over his shoulders, but the sinister look on his face spoke everything she needed to know.
"Ah. My sleeping beauty has awakened." He smiled, walking toward the captured Princess. "How are you feeling? Are you comfortable enough? Oh, should we set up a feast for you? We have plenty of food and wine for you to enjoy, Your Majesty." He bowed sarcastically, putting on a show for his own amusement.
Aurelia scoffed. "Like I'd ever take anything of yours." She mumbled under her breath.
With a swift hand, the man grasped her face with a firm grip and forced her to make eye contact with him. "That is no way to treat the man who saved you."
"You mean the man who kidnapped me from my own kingdom, my own planet, and keeps me in this room bound to a chair?" She yelled in retaliation, spitting at the man.
He backed away for a moment, wiping off his face calmly. He turned to her, staring her down like a wolf watches its prey. In one quick move, the man swiped his hand down to her face, slapping her hard. She gasped at the shock but slowly turned her head back to him. She remained strong, not wanting to give her captor any satisfaction. However, inside her heart pounded against her chest a million miles a minute. Inside, she was truly scared. Not just for her safety, but mostly for the safety of her people, her planet. But no matter how much she hid her emotions from her face, the man still felt them.
"You're scared." He stated simply, beginning to circle her in interrogation. "I can feel it; your fear. You also had a tinge of anger when I hit you. You hated me. Yet somehow, that feeling slipped away. You can control your negative emotions quite well, I'll give you that. But you are terrible at hiding them."
Aurelia growled, her eyes remaining fixed on the ground. "Who are you and what do you want from me?"
The man chuckled deeply. "I am Count Dooku. And you, my darling, are the very thing Darth Sidious wants. Your power." The man let his lips slide into a smirk as his eyes peered at her broken figure. She was bruised, cut, scraped, and had multiple broken bones, but her beauty never slipped, nor did her intuition.
"I don't have a power. Remember, I'm human. Humans don't have powers. That's only written in stories and fairytales. You must certainly be a wacko to believe in such nonsense." Aurelia snarked back at the Count as she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, really. Then it is true that the humans on Earth are as oblivious as they say." He chuckled. He raised out his hand toward Aurelia, seeming to strain his arm as if he were carrying something heavy. Suddenly, the chair began to lift off of the ground and levitate in the air. Aurelia began to panic, squirming in her restraints as she was raised higher and higher off of the ground. Then, it stopped and she fell to the ground, toppling over onto her face. The Count laughed, motioning to his guards to pick her upright. Once she was sitting normally in the steel chair, she breathed heavily as a drop of blood dripped out of her nose and onto her white lacy dress that was spotted with dirt and other bloodstains. "What do you say now, Princess? Do such powers exist in the universe?" He asked her with his smirk still on his face. It sickened her. She looked down at her dirty lap and said nothing.
With a pleasing reaction from the girl, Count Dooku exited the room only for him to motion to the guards. One by one, they stepped into the room and closed the door ominously behind them. Aurelia glanced up at them, then dread entered her heart, dropping her stomach to her feet. The guards came closer to her and violently grabbed her chair backward. Then, she screamed.
~
As if he were right there within her body as it happened, Obi-Wan flinched at the harsh disturbance. Something had happened to the Princess. "We better get there soon. I felt her. She's in danger and she's hurt." He announced to his padawan companion.
"I know. I felt it too." Anakin informed his Master. "And I have the ship in my sights on the scanner."
Obi-wan's heart leapt for joy at the sound of good news. "Good. I'll bring us in nice and easy."
As the large starship entered their field of vision, Obi-Wan glided the small starfighter underneath the hull. With quick precision, the fighter sealed itself onto the ship, off of the radar of the unsuspecting Separatists. Anakin pressed a button on his controls, allowing for a panel in the floor of the fighter to slide open, revealing the exterior of the ship. Obi-Wan swiveled in his pilot's chair and leaned over the hole with his lightsaber wielded in his hand. With a rough plunge into the metal, Obi-Wan gently moved the blade in a circle, then slightly pushed it. The metal circle fell back and into the ship with a quiet clang.
"All right, now comes the hard part. Sneaking around." Obi-Wan said to his padawan.
Anakin snickered. "Yeah, with me, no doubt."
"Especially you."
They silently laughed for a moment before hauling themselves through the hole and into the ship. The level they had hopped into had very low security, barely anyone was present. They sighed in relief and found their way to a control room through the countless corridors and hallways within just one level of the ship. The two rounded a corner but remained hidden as they found at least four soldiers working the controls. Obi-Wan turned to Anakin and used his hands to gesture to him what his plan was. Anakin nodded and watched as his Master used the Force and a slightly raised hand to toss a small metal bar down another hall. The soldiers all looked up, confused.
"What was that?" One asked the others.
"I'm not sure. Two of you go check it out." Another ordered, and two separated from the group.
Obi-Wan turned to Anakin and nodded. Simultaneously, they jumped from their hiding spot and struck down the two in the control room. After hearing a commotion behind them, the soldiers returned from the hall but were struck down with the blue blades. Once they were taken out, Anakin quickly went to the controls, typing in where the Princess was to be kept.
"It seems like she's being kept on the fourteenth floor in a prisoner cell. We can take the Southern elevator to get us closer-" Then another disturbance hit through the Force and it originated from where Anakin had pointed to on the map.
"We have to get there before she's killed, or worse, turned to the Dark Side. I sense she has grown weak from whatever they are putting her through." Obi-Wan told him through aching eyes. He felt every bit of her pain. Every blow she was inflicted, every raspy cough, he felt as well. They needed to find her. They needed to get to her.
The two Jedi ran down the halls toward the Southern elevator at the stern of the ship. It seemed to be only used for storage and was dimly lit compared to the rest of the ship. Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped over crates and capsules of all sorts but their contents didn't matter to them at that moment. All they cared about was retrieving the Princess.
Together, they climbed into the elevator and made their way onto the fourteenth floor. When the doors opened, they cautiously stepped out, looking in all directions for any soldiers roaming the halls. None were found. They snuck out, carefully walking through the halls. When other pairs of walking footsteps came from around a corner, the two stood back and remained in the shadows as they passed. However, the strong beacon of the Force generated by the Princess led them to her cell. However, someone was inside it. A dark Force signature was in there with her. The Jedi stayed hidden behind the cell, waiting for the dark signature to exit.
Soon enough, he did, revealing his old but sly stature. "It's Count Dooku," Anakin whispered, but Obi-Wan swiftly placed his hand over his mouth so that they remained hidden. And they listened.
"That's enough for today. She's tough, I'll give her that. But soon enough she'll break and she'll be my apprentice until she meets with Darth Sidious. She will be a great asset to the cause. Now, go patrol the halls. I suspect someone will come looking for her." The Count told the soldiers before walking off, down a hall. The soldier saluted the dispersed down different halls, leaving the cell unattended.
Obi-Wan removed his hand from Anakin and silently nudged his head toward the door. Anakin swung around his Master and came directly to the lock for the door. "It's locked, but it needs a key card," Anakin reported, then unlatched his lightsaber from his belt. "But we can stab it open."
Obi-Wan grabbed his arm before he could do anything rash. "No. That will set off all of the alarms. Let's go find a guard with a key card."
"Hey! You! Step away from the door!" A voice called from behind them. The two Jedi glanced behind them, then looked at each other.
"Bingo." They smiled and swiftly walked toward the guard with their lightsabers drawn.
"What? No. No! Wait!" The guard screamed but was quickly silenced by a slice about his abdomen. Anakin quickly retrieved the key card from the guard's belt and made his way to the cell door with his Master. He swiped the card through the reader and the doors slid open to the dimly lit room.
In the center was a chair with a mangled girl strapped to it. She seemed to be unconscious, slumped within her restraints. She was bleeding heavily from her head, the blood dripping at a steady pace to the metal floor. Her face was bruised and her wrists and ankles were rubbed raw from the rope. Her lips were cracked and cut, blood oozing from her mouth. If it wasn't for her chest slowly rising and falling, they would've thought she was already dead.
Obi-Wan hurriedly ran to her, cutting her robes with his sapphire lightsaber. She groaned from the relief, rolling her head back loosely. Anakin stayed at the entrance of the cell, watching for anyone coming their way. Obi-Wan looked her over, noticing the complete damage she had been inflicted. It was more than he had ever seen one person take and still be living.
Suddenly, Aurelia's eyes opened. "W-who are you?" She asked groggily, beginning to pull away from Obi-Wan.
"We're Jedi Knights. We've come to save you." He tried to reason with her, but her disoriented head wouldn't comply.
"What? No. No! You're just going to hurt me, hurt my people. Get away from me!" She said, attempting to push the man away through her squinted puffy eyes. But instead, she only nudged him weakly. Her mind was a swirling cloud of confusion and blurriness. She couldn't tell what was right and what was left. She couldn't even distinguish the face directly in front of her. All she could tell was the calm and kind voice that spoke to her.
"Listen to me. You are in danger on this ship. We've come to rescue you and bring you to a safe place. You've got to trust us." Obi-Wan told her, grasping her firmly by the shoulders. She tried to look at him clearly, but it was no use. She grew tired and drowsy quickly, only allowing her to groan and nod in response to him.
Obi-Wan grabbed her, picking her up by her legs and back, cradling her within his arms. He turned to Anakin giving him a nod and together they left the desolate cell. They ran down the hall as quietly as they could, dodging out of sight from the patrol droids and guards that made their rounds through the halls. Once they had passed, they continued hastily toward the Southern elevator. However, they did not suspect the heavy footsteps of one pretentious danger behind them.
"What exactly are you doing with my Princess?" The Count asked calmly as he came to a stop. The two Jedi turned to look at him, only a few feet from their desired elevator. At the sight of his old friend, Dooku's face brightened and he smiled. "Oh! Obi-Wan Kenobi! My old friend. How's the Jedi Council treating you? I see you're a full-fledged Jedi Knight now, are you?"
Obi-Wan stood sternly, his face expressionless. "Count Dooku, I'm sorry to be of such a bother, but I have to take this Princess to a place to be treated. She is severely wounded." He said with half sarcasm lining his voice.
Dooku shook his head with a light chuckle. "Don't worry about her. We'll take good care of her here. You understand." He told him, staring him down with a wide smirk lining his lips.
Obi-Wan glared at the older man. He's known the man since before he could even remember. He was Qui-Gon Jinn's - Obi-Wan's old mentor - Master before he was even born. Count Dooku had been a loyal Jedi Master, up until...now. Now, he was the abusive force that led to the Princess's broken state, the one that led the invasion on Earth, the one responsible for all of the innocent deaths. He was no Jedi Master. He was a monster.
"What I understand is that we are no longer on the same side, Dooku. We stand opposite of each other." Obi-Wan spoke truthfully, holding the sleeping girl closer to his chest as her bloodied head rested on his shoulder peacefully. "We are going to take the girl and leave you. We shall face each other again, Dooku. And we will not fight alongside each other like we once did. We will fight against each other. I promise you that."
Dooku cackled at Obi-Wan for his stoic speech. "Really, now? No, I think we should finish this here and now!"
The older man pounced into the air with incredible speed, almost a blur to the Jedi. And in the last moment, they caught a glimpse of his blood-red lightsaber, the color of the Sith. Nevertheless, the crimson was cut off swiftly by an azure blade, blocking the attack on Obi-Wan and the girl.
"Go to the elevator, Master! I can hold him off!" Anakin yelled to Obi-Wan as he held off Dooku with his lightsaber, the sizzling sound from the weapons disturbing the silence. Obi-Wan nodded to him and ran off into the elevator, he pressed the desired button and watched impatiently as his student faced off the ex-Jedi Master.
"Anakin! Leave him! We will face him another day." He called to the padawan as he continue to spar the man. He stretched out his arm and threw the Count backward enough for Anakin to jump into the elevator before the doors shut on him. They both hit the floor with exasperated breaths and sighs, looking at each other with a hint of a smile on either of their lips. "Thanks, Anakin."
"Of course, Master." He smiled back. However, his gaze caught the sleeping girl that remained in Obi-Wan's lap. Her head had snuggled into the crook of his neck, a sense of comfort and safety encompassing her face. Though she was beaten to a pulp, she still held her beauty from the picture they had been given. "Will she be all right?"
Obi-Wan brought his attention to the youthful Princess as well, taking in her features that almost seemed squashed due to the beating she had received. He felt his heart mourn for her, using a gentle hand to tuck a stray strand of red hair behind her ear. His eyes reflected the utmost kindness and concern for the damaged girl that lay asleep within his arms. Anakin could see it, and almost had that same reaction toward her. "She will be once we get off this ship. We must hurry to our starfighter and get out of here as quickly as possible." Advised Obi-Wan.
Anakin nodded and rose to his feet as the elevator approached the lowest floor. Obi-Wan followed, carefully rising to his feet with Aurelia in his arms. The doors opened to a group of droids with their blasters aimed directly at them. As quickly as the surprise attack had come, the two Jedi dodged out of the fire, and Anakin pulled out his lightsaber, ignited to its blue glow. Obi-Wan placed the Princess down to join his padawan in the fight, igniting his own sapphire lightsaber. Together as a flawless team, they sliced down the droids all the while deflecting blaster bolts as they took on the group.
One droid had bypassed the battle and slipped into the elevator to retrieve the unconscious Princess. However, his moment of secrecy and victory was cut short as a lightsaber blade pierced his metal exterior and sliced him in half. His body fell over, a melted piece of metal on the floor beside the resting girl. Obi-Wan picked her up once more and followed Anakin to the now-empty control room. But Anakin stopped short beside the controls, a thought entering his mind.
"Anakin, we have to go." He warned his padawan.
Anakin turned to Obi-Wan, a thoughtful expression upon his face. "You go to the starfighter. I'll catch up in a second. I've got something to do." He said, walking around the counter to the control center.
"Are you sure?" Anakin nodded with a smirk prominent on his face. "Okay. You better be back in five minutes." Anakin waved him off to let Obi-Wan leave. He weaved throughout the corridors that led back to the small hole they had made in the floor, then gently placed the girl through before hopping down himself. He got the Princess situated in the passenger seat, allowing Anakin to take the gunner seat behind her. He placed himself in the pilot's seat, only to hear the scurried feet of his padawan. Anakin popped down and climbed back into the gunner seat before they closed the hatch and separated from the ship.
Without any shots fired at them, they blasted off into hyperspace with their mission a success.
~~~~~~~~
A/N : Yay! Chapter 2! I'm currently writing chapter 3 but I hope to have that out soon. Let me know what you think so far and tell me what you think is going to happen next. Love you all! ❤️
~5/31/22
~3353 Words