Aniya Skywalker
Voices echo loudly around me, and I jolt awake with a start, right as someone very rudely shoves me with the end of a blaster. Amani surround us on all sides. Obi-Wan is already standing with cuffs on his wrists, and they roughly drag me to my feet, putting me in restraints as well.
"You were supposed to be on watch!" Obi-Wan exclaims, irritably.
"We thought this would be more effective," I confess, smirking at his irritation.
"This was your idea of a plan?!" he shrieks, "You intentionally fell asleep and let us get captured?!"
"It's working, right?" Anakin retorts, equally amused.
They jerk him to his feet, putting him in cuffs as well and taking away our lightsabers before shoving us forwards.
"Time for some more walking," I drawl.
"Since this was your plan, I have no sympathy for you," Obi-Wan retaliates.
"I didn't ask for any," I snip. I feel better than I did last night, or maybe it's just that I have something else to focus on again, now that we're back in the action. Missions are the only thing that distract me, really.
"Hopefully, they take us to their leader," Anakin interjects.
"I have no idea what the plan is," Obi-Wan huffs, apparently still grouchy he got such a rude awakening, "Remember I just woke up."
"Well, you do seem rested," Anakin shoots back.
"Yeah, if all your complaints are anything to go by," I agree.
"Well, I'll make a very pleasant captive," he mutters.
"You already are," I smirk.
The walk is very long and very boring, but at least we manage to convince the leader we're here to buy their "new shiny weapon" that "everyone in the Outer Rim knows about", according to Anakin and Obi-Wan. Thankfully, they actually bought that claim.
"You said 'the big man'?" Anakin hisses in a whisper, as creature who could compete with Master Yoda in height drives up on a speeder and jumps off, marching up to us.
Obi-Wan shoves him. "Not now."
"My name is not important," the creature insists in a high-pitched screechy voice as Obi-Wan tries to begin with the boring pleasantries. "I heard that the Republic is interested in buying the crystal."
"Crystal?" Anakin blurts out, eyes widening.
Obi-Wan pointedly shoves his way in front of him. "Yes, we are definitely interested in buying the crystal." Fast thinking. I'm tempted to roll my eyes at their antics.
Anakin carefully looks over his shoulder and circles around him. "Crystal? I thought you said missile!"
"And we're here to buy the crystal," Obi-Wan adds.
Which is when the creature finally announces his intention to sell it to 'General Krell'. I barely withhold the question of 'is he here?'. We have to play this just right. I can't afford to mess this up. They finally give in to our insistence about seeing this crystal – what could they be doing with a crystal?! – though, and we start walking again.
It goes fine, all things considered, until we reach their camp, and they decide they want to lock us up in separate cells while we wait.
One of the Amani shoves me forwards, and Anakin abruptly spins around, kicking one of them back, flipping out of the way as they try shooting at him. I instantly spring into motion, throwing several of them back, position my hands right so when one of them fires, the cuffs clatter to the floor.
Anakin throws the guards around us into the wall, hard enough to knock them out, then darts to the controls and hits a button. The ray shields around Obi-Wan open as another guard runs into the room. Obi-Wan flips through the air before I can react, kicking the guard in the head looking much too smug as he hits the ground. "Come on!"
We sprint down the hall for the ventilation system, where we always go, taking only a slight detour for Anakin and I to steal a few weapons. "What about this?" Anakin asks smugly, picking up an enormous blaster. It's something Hardcase would loved.
"You've been spending too much time with Hardcase," I retort.
"Maybe," he agrees, setting it back down, scanning over the shelves.
"How about these?" I suggest, picking up a small, handheld blaster.
"They should do," Anakin agrees, picking up one of his own and tossing one across the floor over to Obi-Wan. It hits his boot, and he looks down at it like it's poison or something. "What do you think?"
"That's so uncivilized," he gripes. "I'll just keep using my mind."
"Now that would be a first," I retaliate.
He ignores me, continuing to look around the room.
"Stop being stubborn," Anakin advises cheerfully, "It is the best we can get."
"These are actually useful," Obi-Wan retorts, stepping out from behind another shelf, holding up smoke bombs. "They're going to find us soon. We should be ready."
"What do you think we're doing?" I chirp, setting my blaster down and darting over to join him. We get to work, quickly setting all the bombs in place by the door, before ducking behind the shelves, waiting.
"Shoot anything that comes through that door," Obi-Wan declares.
"I thought you were complaining about us having blasters," Anakin teases.
My hand clenches around the blaster, and I hold it ready. Seconds later, the door bursts open, and Amani pour through, blasters raised. The bombs go off a moment later, a smoky haze flooding through the room.
The Amani might be blind now, but we certainly aren't. I shoot the first one down, ducking party out of hiding to get a better aim. Anakin is doing likewise, and within moments, everyone in the room is down.
"Good aim," Obi-Wan compliments as we stand, heading for the exit to the room. The smoke is pouring out into the hall, successfully blinding anyone who's still coming – and I can still sense more of them out there.
"You haven't seen anything yet," Anakin replies cheerfully. He picks up the blaster he'd tried to give Obi-Wan before, shooting with both as we head out into the hall. Almost all of them are down before they even have the chance to start firing back.
"That's all of them... for now," I observe, scanning the hall.
"Are you done showing off?" Obi-Wan asks, appearing behind us, "No one's impressed."
Rude.
"Impressive, Jedi," a voice rings out at the end of the hall, another Amani striding into view. With our lightsabers. We don't waste a moment, yanking them away from him with the Force and sprinting down the halls again.
As we run through the halls, the sensation that I've been feeling this entire time though I didn't consciously think about it until now – only seems to be getting stronger. A strange... humming of sorts, in the Force.
They'd said a crystal.
Did they mean... a kyber crystal?
That's not good. What would the Separatists want with a kyber crystal?
We cut our way through the rest of the guards in the hall, finally reaching a large main room. Everyone present including the 'Big Man', scatter, jumping onto speeders and taking off across the plains.
Something sparkles on the ceiling, and I look up to see an enormous green crystal hanging from the ceiling. It's... huge, and the Force is flowing strongly around it the same way it does for all kyber crystals. I didn't realize they could get so big, and it's disturbing that the Separatists found something this... dangerous.
Dread pools inside of me instantly. So this is what the Krell wants. I do not want to know what he has in mind for it. The kind of weapon that could be built with that thing... I don't even want to think about it. No matter what happens, we can't less this fall into the Sith's hands.
***
"Well now we have nothing to pull the crystal with," Obi-Wan huffs, crossing his arms as he surveys the wreckage. The animal we were using to pull the cart has long since disappeared into the grass, leaving the crystal cart behind, but thankfully not overturned.
"We have something better!" Anakin declares cheerfully, approaching the overturned speeder from some of the guards who were chasing us, "This speeder should work."
"If it's still functioning," I agree, dragging it over to the cart and helping Anakin fasten it in place. Faint traces of the Dark Side nag at the edge of my senses, and I pause, throwing a brief glance at the endless grass ahead of us. I don't see anything, but definitely sense something. Krell. It's the only person it can be. And that means he must be here. "We need to hurry," I mutter, forcing myself to focus past the instinctive flare of fury and fear.
From the sudden tense look on Anakin's face, I know he senses the same. He climbs on in the front, and I scoot on behind him, which leaves hardly any room for Obi-Wan. He clumsily positions himself behind, holding onto me to keep from being thrown off as Anakin tries to fire up the engines.
"Maybe you need to hit the booster on the left," he says grumpily when nothing happens.
"That is not a booster," Anakin objects.
"It looks like one to me."
"Hey, he knows how to fly!" I object.
"Well, we aren't getting very far."
"You just need to hang on," I smirk, right as the engine abruptly flares to life and jolts forwards, nearly throwing him off balance.
He mutters something under his breath that I don't bother to listen to as we race away across the fields again.
The sound of approaching motors reaches my ears, and a blaster shot suddenly rings out, flying right past us. Anakin swerves sharply to the side as several more follow.
Obi-Wan jumps onto the cart, climbing on top of the crystal to deflect the shots away.
"We'll handle this," I assure Anakin, leaping onto the cart to join Obi-Wan. There are several speeders rapidly gaining ground on us, one of them including the very small big man.
I deflect several shots back into one of their engines, and it explodes, sending him flying.
The cart jerks suddenly again, nearly dislodging me. Obi-Wan falls off the top of the crystal, catching himself on the side of the rail. Several shots totally miss us and our lightsabers, striking the crystal instead. The Force surges, and I duck down instinctively, right as the crystal starts to glow. A brilliant flash of green energy explodes outwards, striking the Amani, leaving....
Nothing.
They just... disintegrated?
"What was that?" Anakin asks.
"The crystal... deflected the blaster bolts?" Obi-Wan yelps.
"I didn't even know it could do that," I exclaim. Actually, yes I did. "I suppose it works like an overgrown lightsaber."
"That better not be what they want it for," Obi-Wan mutters.
"They want it for a weapon of some kind," Anakin interjects, "Something far larger than that."
The 'Big man' is the last one behind us, and he turns away, zooming a different direction across the plains. Frowning, I pull out my macrobinoculars, watching where he's going. "He's heading to a spaceport," I report, "And there's... two MagnaGuards heading our way." But no Krell. Yet.
"Do you want to fight them here or in the sinkhole?" Anakin asks.
"Sinkhole," Obi-Wan decides, jumping on top of the crystal again.
We're halfway through the sinkhole when the MagnaGuards catch up. The cart rocks unsteadily as Obi-Wan and I try to deflect the blasts from their bikes away. One of them races up to us, activating it's electrostaff, meeting Obi-Wan's blade. I jump down next to him, flipping off the cart onto the back of the MagnaGuard, lopping it's head off. The bike promptly spirals out of control, and I jump back to the cart, catching myself on the very edge, nearly getting crushed on the rocky ledge next to us. I try to pull myself up over the edge, but the whole thing jolts violently again, and I nearly lose my hold instead.
The other MagnaGuard suddenly falls over the edge, catching onto the side of the cart a short distance down. Great. It swings around, crawling across the bottom right towards me, I clench my teeth, swinging to the side and kicking it before I jump up over the edge onto the cart again.
"Krell is here!" Obi-Wan calls, right as the MagnaGuard jumps up behind me. A jolt of anger and fear race threw me, and I throw out a hand, knocking it off, smashing it against the rocky wall. Two down, but there's a long ways to go.
Krell rapidly gains ground on us, and Anakin increases the speed, diving downwards, straight over a gathered group of creatures of some kind. The noise and sudden movement startles them, and they rear up into the air. Krell – unsurprisingly but frustratingly – jerks his speeder up into the air, narrowly missing them, still speeding after us.
The Besalisk stands, still controlling the speeder with one of his hands – which is so unfair – igniting one of his double bladed lightsabers, before he jumps for us. He lands on the back of the cart, and I dive at him instantly, swinging for his head, grim determination flooding me. We have a chance to end him here and now, and I'll do everything I can to make sure we do. The crystal comes first, but if we could kill Krell, it would be a major blow to the Separatists. (Not that I don't have personal interests in it too, but still.)
Krell shoves me back hard, lightsabers spinning, as Obi-Wan attacks him from the other side. Hs red blades spin furiously and I duck back from his constant onslaught of attacks, forced onto the defensive to keep up. It's not his skill so much as how many lightsabers he has that makes it so difficult.
A Force shove catches me, throwing me back. I jump to my feet again, leaping to the top of the crystal and lifting a large rock with the Force, throwing it at him. He slashes through it, jumping atop the crystal and charging at me. Obi-Wan hops on behind him, and our blades lock again. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have jumped up here, because it's far more precarious and –
The cart jolts, nearly throwing us down. I glance briefly over my shoulder, to see that it's sparking. It's about to give out. How did that happen? From the MagnaGuards earlier, maybe?
A twisted smirk crosses Krell's face, an unmistakable hint of glee in his yellow eyes as he leaps past me, landing on the front of the cart right behind Anakin. Panic flares inside of me, and I race after, jumping down near him, but careful to stay clear of his lightsabers as I fall. He spins up one blade to block me, stabbing the other down straight into the controls.
The cart swerves violently, and then, we're all falling.
I frantically catch myself with the Force, barely missing slamming face-first into the rocky ground below. The crystal smashes down right next to me, Anakin and Obi-Wan landing a short distance away.
Krell is already leaping for me, and I roll out of the way, throwing him back with the Force as I stand. Anakin ignites his own blade, and runs to join the fight. The other MagnaGuards on speeders fly up only seconds later, jumping off. Obi-Wan intercepts them before they can reach us, and I throw all my focus into fighting Krell. This is not working. Without the cart, how are we ever going to get the crystal out of here now?! We don't have a ship close enough to use the Force to carry it, either.
I don't have time to think about a plan either with Krell's blades about to impale me. But he's trying to fend off both me and Anakin now. We just need to find an opening. What I don't know is how. This is so much like the last time we fought him.
I cut downwards sharply, faster than he can block, burning across his leg very briefly before slashing upwards, cutting through the hilt of his lightsaber. Half of it falls to the ground, and he growls, throwing out a hand, shoving both me and Anakin backwards.
I don't even have a second to recollect myself before he's charging at me, catching me by the neck, lifting me off my feet. Panic floods me, and I struggle in vain to pull away from him – and the red lightsabers only inches away from me. Behind him, I can see Anakin standing up again, but it's the last thing I register before my vision goes dark.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
I slash through the first of the MagnaGuards, but there's still a few more to go, and now Anakin is against Krell alone. And I can hear engines, which means more droids approaching. Now would be a good time for a strategic retreat, but that's currently impossible.
One of the electrostaffs hits me, a jolt of electricity running through me. I spin around, ducking below it's electrostaff, bisecting it both ways, dodging as the other one tries to hit me.
Battle droids march into view, immediately moving over to Aniya, holding her at blaster point. The rest begin putting devices on the crystal to transport it. We need to think of some way out of this, but I don't have a moment to do when I'm focused on fighting the droids.
I kick the last standing MagnaGuard back, only for the battle droids to start shooting at me. The MagnaGuard promptly attacks me again, and it's more than a little difficult to stay focused on that while the battle droids take an occasional shot at me, whenever they won't risk hitting it in the process. I don't manage to move quite fast enough, and the electrostaff slams into me again.
I stumble for a moment at the pain, but it's for a moment too long. The droid knocks me to the ground, holding me there with the end of the electrostaff.
"Master!" I distantly hear Anakin calling me.
It feels like an eternity later – it probably wasn't more than some seconds – before it finally stops, leaving me struggling to catch me breath.
"You will die, Jedi," Krell hisses gleefully, "You cannot escape."
Any other situation, and I'd have a perfect retort to that, but right now, I'm a little short on catching my breath, and the worst part is that it seems like it might actually be true. No, we aren't going to die now, not to this. I know how high the chance is, but there must be something we can do.
The only thing I can think of is if Anakin escapes while he still can. If Krell wanted us dead immediately, he would have killed Aniya already. No, he wants us alive, at least for now, and that can give us an opportunity to escape.
"Anakin!" I call, except apparently that upsets the droid, and it promptly hits me with the electrostaff again.
Fine.
I reach out with the Force, nudging my bond with him. "You need to go."
I feel a flare of fear and incredulousness. "I'm not leaving you and Aniya!"
"Come back for us. They want us alive." I need to keep it short, because I can't afford to distract Anakin too much right now either. "We need a different plan. You'll only get captured too if you stay."
Anakin hesitates, throwing a brief glance at me and Aniya – which Krell promptly uses to try and behead him. He dodges out of the way, sprinting out of sight behind the crystal.
"Go," I silently urge him.
"I'll come back," Anakin promises, though I can feel how decidedly unhappy he is, before he conceals himself in the Force.
Krell is already circling around the crystal looking for him, but since we're in the middle of a sinkhole, there's plenty of places to hide if he can get to them fast enough. I know he's still somewhere close, probably watching to see what Krell will do if he can't find him, before leaving to try coming back later.
I watch with no small measure of smugness as they search the area, trying in vain to find Anakin. "Get it to the ship," Krell finally barks, and the battle droids start pushing the crystal away.
A few others come over, putting binders on me and Aniya. "Move it," one of the battle droids squawks, shoving me forwards as they drag Aniya across the ground behind me.
"Coming here was a mistake, Kenobi," Krell hisses, smirking.
"We'll see," I shoot back, as we're led onto the landing platform, where the Governor, Investigators, and a few other officials are waiting.
And none of them so much as blink at Krell's presence here.
They were in on it this whole time. I'm not surprised, but that doesn't make me any more appreciative of their deception.
But what matters most is finding a way out of this mess and taking the crystal with us while we're at it. I can only hope Anakin will be to come up with something.
Anakin Skywalker
Fear claws at me, but I force myself to focus as I fly the stolen shuttle up towards the Separatist ship. I just need to get into the hangar, find Aniya and Obi-Wan, and take it from there. They were captured by Krell, and I know far too well what that could mean.
I don't feel any danger from them right now, but... I should have been able to stop this instead of running. True I probably would have been captured to, but what if I can't get to them? I shouldn't have left them, even if Obi-Wan told me to.
Vulture droids swoop into view, shooting at the ship. I jerk it out of the way, firing back at them. But there's so many of them, and I can't avoid being hit and try shooting back at the same time. Blasts repeatedly strike the shields, and they're failing within minutes.
Fine.
I can do this the same way we've gotten onto other Separatist ships in the past.
I flip it into autopilot, then race for the escape pods. A shot strikes the one right next to me, blasting it into pieces as I frantically push the release button. The escape pod streaks away from the shuttle – thankfully all the droids are still too focused on it to notice – and crashes right into the open hangar entrance. I leap out, igniting my lightsaber instantly as I land.
A droid marches by, carrying a large crate, but otherwise, the place is empty. So it's for storage. That... makes this a lot easier.
I dart out into the hall, staying close to the walls as I my make way through the ship for the closest control room. I shoot down all the droids before they can sound an alarm – seriously, sometimes these can be far more useful than lightsabers – and run to the controls, quickly locating the holding cells, and where they're taking the crystal.
I sprint out of the room again, weaving through the endless hallways until I finally reach the prison area. The battle droids are easy enough to get by, and I race for Aniya's cell first. I let out a silent sigh of relief when I don't sense Krell anywhere nearby. He must be reporting to Dooku.
I push the button on the controls, and the door to my sister's cell hisses open. She's in the center of the room, and looks mostly okay, other than minor injuries from the fight.
"Aniya," I call urgently, as I hurry over, freeing her form the restraints. She stumbles forwards, nearly falling, but I catch her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she mutters, not very convincingly.
She steps away from me towards the door, and nearly stumbles again.
"You are not fine," I frown, taking her arm to steady her.
"It's nothing serious. Just a headache," she assures, scowling briefly, "I didn't want you to worry."
A headache courtesy of Krell knocking her unconscious again, so it's hopefully, nothing too serious. I don't know though. I worry for her. I know being strangled can cause brain damage, and while we've never had any... major experiences with that, I know it is possible. "Can you walk?"
Aniya grimaces. "Yes. Come on." She pulls away, hurrying for the door. Pushing past any injuries, like we always have to. We need to keep moving if we're ever going to get that crystal. We cross the hall, freeing Obi-Wan from his cell. He's alright, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief. I know I would have sensed it if he was hurt, but it's still relieving to see.
"I have something for you two," I announce, cheerfully, holding out their lightsabers, "Try not to lose them again. You know, these weapon are your life."
"I see that you hear some things I tell you," Obi-Wan shoots back, taking it.
"With how many times you repeated that, no one could forget," Aniya retalies.
"We need to hurry," I reply, as we head down the hall again, "They're taking the crystal to a safe in the C-complex."
"How do you know that?" Obi-Wan objects.
"You can find out a lot when you aren't captured," I smirk. The rescue easy enough, but... what if it wasn't? Krell could still find us. We're on a ship full of droids, and... I do my best to shake off the fears, as always, refocusing on the mission. We have a crystal to find.
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