I have seen General Grievous before through holo-transmissions and other sources, but never have we met face to face. He is menacing, yet does not quite live up to his terrifying reputation.
"General Grievous," I muse. "I must say, I thought someone as gruesome as you would be...taller."
"And I thought a Jedi would be smart enough to avoid a tractor beam." He scoffs, taking a step toward me.
I admit, he does have a point. I probably should have seen this coming.
"Well, I can't be the brains, brawn, and beauty now can I?" I retaliate.
I need to keep Grievous talking until he is close enough for me to engage my plan of attack. Taunting him seems to be the best way to achieve this.
"You fool yourself, Jedi." He remarks, stepping a few meters forward.
Closer...
"This is quite the ship you have here, Grievous." I smirk. "It's a shame you're such an incompetent captain."
He growls angrily as he storms in my direction with two battle droids at his side.
Closer...
He continues his heavy footsteps toward me.
Now.
I channel the force to complete a high and extended jump over General Grievous and the two battle droids beside him. Unable to resist the temptation, I flip a few times before sticking the landing. I then use the force to push Grievous and the droids into the ship.
I rigged the ship to explode before getting out. That's one of the things I've learnt from Anakin since we fell in love. His words were "I want you to be prepared for anything". It seems that particular lesson has come in handy.
My timing is perfect, as the bomber explodes within seconds. Grievous gets flown out slightly and the rubble of the ship piles on top of him.
I briefly turn my head to the corridor where Cal is waiting. He's gone, telling me he understood the massive explosion was the signal. I've bought Cal a bit of time. If he weren't onboard the ship right now, I would use the force to fully implode it.
Dozens of battle droids enter the docking bay. Half of them are focused on extinguishing the flame with hoses that they cannot control. I decide not to worry about them, they are a bigger threat to themselves than to me. The other half have blasters and aim all of their fire at me.
I hastily unclip my lightsaber from my belt, activate it, and assume my battle stance. This is going to be fun.
I charge toward the battle droids while deflecting incoming blaster fire from all directions. Some of the blasts are deflected back to their source, the others hurtle into other parts of the ship. I slice at the remaining droids until there are no others standing. Once they are all taken care of, I make my way toward the rubble in which Grievous is buried.
Suddenly, I find myself unable to move. I'm trapped within the boundaries of some form of energy.
A ray shield. How did I not see this coming?
Another wave of B1 battle droids enter the docking bay and surround the ray shield in which I am trapped. I deactivate my lightsaber and reattach it to my belt. I've gotten myself into quite the mess.
Before me, General Grievous breaks out from the debris atop of him. There's nothing quite as terrifying as Kaleesh-turned-cyborg rising up from charred rubble.
"That was quite a performance." His victorious monologue is interrupted by his treacherous coughing.
"Might want to get that checked out." I smirk, "It sounds as though a chest plate has damaged your lungs."
Grievous storms his way over to the ray shield trapping me. Normally this would not be a good time to antagonise my captor, but there's nothing he can do to shut me up. I'm his leverage. He needs me alive.
I may just see Anakin again.
I narrow my eyes as I glare at Grievous through the white energy field separating the two of us. At this moment, it's like I can see into his soul. There is no good or mercy. Only darkness. Darkness of this kind is not something I am used to seeing in someone's eyes. It's unnerving.
The ray shield is deactivated during our staring match and force restricting cuffs are placed on my wrists. Grievous grabs my lightsaber from my belt and admires it before handing it to a battle droid for safe keeping.
"Another lightsaber for my collection." He beams.
I shudder at his words. He uses the lightsabers of fallen Jedi as trophies. My name will not be added to his list of kills.
"It's a little creepy to keep mementos of dead Jedi, don't you think?" I ask bluntly.
His hideous laugh breaks into a dry cough. If only Master Windu had crushed his chest plates a little harder.
"Yours will soon be added to that list." He threatens.
I am not intimidated in the slightest.
Grievous, along with his reinforcements, lead me through the Malevolence. The design of it would be quite impressive if it weren't for the excessive dirt and grime covering the surfaces. This is a new ship operated by droids, how could it possibly be this untidy?
I'm pushed inside a room that seems to be a prison cell. At the centre is a contraption I have seen before. It's another force restricting constraint, only slightly more effective than the simple handcuffs I am in right now.
"All of this trouble for me?" I remark. "Grievous, you shouldn't have."
I'm escorted by battle droids to the more sophisticated trap. I could easily overpower them and escape if I wanted to, but that would be a risk to Cal. Instead, I must achieve my new goal of stalling Grievous long enough for Anakin to get here.
The droids lock me into place and leave me alone with Grievous. Two of them remain at the entrance to stand guard.
"You are my hostage (y/n) (y/l/n)" Grievous says. "My mission is to return this ship to Count Dooku. Your capture has ensured Separatist victory."
His villainous monologue is too much for even me to handle. I zone out completely and instead focus on Anakin's presence. It's weak due to the force restricting contraption I'm stuck in, but our connection is still there. I can feel him drawing closer and closer to my location with each passing second. It seems nothing is strong enough to stop the connection between Anakin and I.
The fact that he's beginning to feel closer means he's on his way here. It's up to me to ensure Grievous is too distracted to notice Anakin's disturbance onboard the ship.
"Great story," I yawn, abruptly interrupting Grievous "but might I ask in which chapter do you shut up?"
Grievous responds with anger by slapping me across the face. The impact stings my cheekbone. The pain is unpleasant, but I welcome it. For him to retaliate like this means my tactics are working.
"Jedi scum!" He growls.
He turns to leave but I cannot allow that. Every second he is distracted by me equates to an extra second Cal is safe.
"Leaving so soon, Grievous?" I ask as he begins to walk to the door.
He turns around and begins to approach me again.
"Count Dooku said that you were bold with your words, (y/l/n)." Grievous scoffs.
The fact that Dooku had previously informed Grievous of who I am startles me. I'm too take aback by it to be able to think of a witty comment quickly enough.
"Um sir." One of the guarding battle droids says.
"What is it?" Grievous asks angrily.
"There's three other Jedi on the ship." The droid announces.
They're here.
Grievous turns his attention back to me. He may be incapable of facial expressions, but I can still see the anger taking over him.
"You've been stalling." He states rather than asks.
"I thought a cunning General such as yourself would have figured that out sooner." I reply.
I expect Grievous to whack me in the face again but he doesn't. Instead, he angrily storms to the exit of the room.
"Guard the prisoner." He orders the battle droids.
"Roger roger." One of the droids replies.
With that, I am left alone with two battle droids.
I close my eyes and concentrate on Anakin's force signature. He's getting closer. He knows where I am. All I need to do is distract them for a little longer. They are not the most intelligent form of droid, so I should have no problem with that.
"Hey," I call to the B1 battle droids at the entrance.
"Quiet, Jedi." One of them orders.
I can feel Anakin getting closer and closer. I wait a few more seconds before continuing to taunt the two.
"Have you ever fought a Jedi?" I ask.
"Uhh, no." The other droid answers.
"Good." I smirk.
Anakin rushes through the door and slices down the two battle droids that were standing guard. His sweaty hair sticks to his glistening forehead.
"Hello, handsome." I smile from the restraints I am in.
He hurries over to me and cuts me out of the restraints. I allow myself to fall into his arms. I grab the collar of his robes and pull him in for a loving kiss.
"Oh, the things you do to get me alone." He teases.
His eyebrows furrow as he notices the slight wound on my face inflicted by General Grievous. He brushes stray pieces of hair away from it.
"Did Grievous do this?" He asks angrily.
"Yeah. Sassing out a cyborg is not the best idea." I laugh lightly.
Anakin's face does not change. If anything, he's getting angrier.
"He hurt you, (y/n). He won't get away with that." He says sternly, all emotion leaving him.
The wound on my face is not that bad. It's a slight cut along my cheekbone with likely some bruising. He has no reason to be this mad about it.
"Calm down, Anakin." I whisper.
I place a gentle hand on his jaw in an attempt to calm him down. It seems to work.
In the heat of the moment, I forgot about Cal. He's not with Anakin. My mind begins racing with possibilities. Did Grievous hurt him?
"Where's Cal?" I ask nervously. "Is he safe?"
Anakin cups my face with his hands and looks calmly into my terrified eyes.
"He's fine. He's with Obi Wan. They're going to meet us back at our ship." Anakin explains.
I exhale a breath I didn't realise I was holding in. Cal is safe. My plan worked. We're all going to make it out of here.
"Cal managed to open up a communication line between this ship and the Republic fleet. He's been communicating with us the entire time." Anakin adds on to what he said previously.
I smile proudly. Cal is learning a lot very quickly. I couldn't have asked for a better, more capable Padawan.
"He also managed to overhear that the hyperdrive is nearly operational again." Anakin adds.
If the hyperdrive is operational, Grievous can escape along with the ship. That would mean this entire mission was a failure.
"So it's up to the Skywalker's to destroy this thing?" I ask.
He nods confidently. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about this. Creating mischief alongside my husband was always fun.
"I believe this belongs to you." Anakin says.
He extends his hand to reveal my lightsaber hilt. I eagerly pick it up
"Thank you." I say gratefully. "I thought this would be added to Grievous' trophy case."
"Grievous' what?" Anakin questions.
"I'll explain later." I say. "Let's go."
Now is not the best time to go into detail about how General Grievous likes to keep the lightsabers of Jedi he murders.
We continue through the Malevolence, narrowly avoiding plenty of droids along the way. Leaving a trail of destruction would only lead Grievous to us. Anakin contacts Obi Wan on our way. He and Cal are safely on their way to our ship.
Soon enough, we make it to our desired location. The lift to the control room. We step inside the lift and wait until we reach the top.
"Ready to create some chaos?" Anakin says, readying himself for what may be behind that door.
I unclip my lightsaber from my belt and ignite it.
"I thought you'd never ask." I smirk.
We use the force to dramatically open the lift door and storm into the control room. Inside are multiple B1 battle droids as well as a couple of super battle droids. This is going to be fun.
Side by side, we slice through the droids filling the control room. They don't even get a chance to fire at us before we cut them down.
It is no problem at all for us to destroy them. Together, we are unbeatable.
"So, where do we start?" I ask Anakin once all of the droids are defeated.
"I'm going to hot-wire this ship, give Grievous a little surprise." He says, sitting down on one of the control seats "You're on clean-up duty."
The tone in his voice upon saying this is much too humorous. He will find any possible excuse to avoid cleaning.
"No problem." I agree.
I sit down on the comfortable chair beside him and use the force to lift the fallen droids off of the ground. I then move them into the lift we arrived on.
"It seems I had the easy job." I taunt, kicking my feet up to rest on the control panel.
Anakin laughs while continuing to work on hot-wiring the ship. I must say, his determination right now is quite...pleasing.
"That ought to do it." He comments, pressing one final button on the control panel. "Let's get out of here."
We walk back to the lift where I piled the droids. If someone is on their way up now in the other lift, they will have no idea that Anakin has sabotaged the ship.
"What did you do to the ship?" I inquire.
"Let's just say General Grievous is going to get quite the surprise when he jumps to hyperspace." Anakin boasts with his trademark smirk.
We run out of the lift when the doors open. Dozens of droids pursue us but we don't bother to attack. It's not like they'll actually hit us anyway.
"Obi Wan, tell Artoo to fire up the ship's engines. We're almost there." Anakin says through his commlink.
Anakin presses a few buttons when we reach the docking station of the ship. The doors open swiftly and we rush inside. We are protected by the barrier of the doors just as droidekas arrive at the scene.
We hurry into the main area of the ship where Obi Wan, Cal, and Artoo are waiting. Anakin sits down in the pilot seat and readies himself to get us out of here. Normally I would argue that I should be the one to fly but we don't really have time for that right now.
"Master!" Cal exclaims, rushing to my side.
I place my hands on my Padawan's shoulders.
"Are you okay? Did Grievous find you?" I ask worriedly.
"I'm fine, Master. I listened to your instructions and managed to remain unseen until Master Kenobi found me." Cal explains.
I turn my attention to Obi Wan. He risked a lot to come to our rescue. That's something I will forever be grateful for.
"Thank you, Obi Wan." I say.
"No need to thank me, (y/n). If it weren't for your Padawan, we would not have the upper hand on the Separatists." Obi Wan explains cheerily.
I would have taken the opportunity to further applaud Cal for his actions if the ship hadn't started rumbling. It would seem Grievous and his little army are pursuing us.
"Time for some clever tricks, Anakin." Obi Wan suggests.
If I know Anakin, those tricks are going to involve spins, jarring turns, and dives.
"That's what I was thinking." Anakin answers.
"I'll start shooting." I announce.
I press a few buttons to activate the gunning system of the ship. I may be an excellent pilot, but I am also a perfectly capable gunner. I watch the enemy ships through the scanner and shoot down all that come within range. Obi Wan occasionally applauds me for my accurate aiming abilities.
Artoo begins to beep anxiously, warning us that the Malevolence is initiating their hyperdrive sequence.
"Don't worry about that, Artoo. Anakin has that sorted." I reply.
"What?" Obi Wan and Cal ask, unaware of this aspect of the plan.
"I hot-wired the ship. When the hyperdrive is activated, they will head straight into the nearby moon." Anakin explains as if it weren't that complicated.
I watch through the scanner as the Malevolence speeds into the moon just as planned. Although Anakin does have a lot of stupid plans, he does occasionally have a really good one.
"It would seem this mission was a success after all." Obi Wan boasts.
"A success indeed" I say.
Anakin turns his gaze to me and gives me a playful wink.
With that, we dock on the Republic cruiser containing Master Plo and Ahsoka, knowing we have succeeded in destroying the Malevolence.