sparky // a padawan story

chapter 30. return of the slavers.

We exit hyperspace and draw closer to the planet Kiros. Obi-Wan squints as he examines the world.
"All clear, sir. There are no Separatist craft in the system," Cody informs us. Obi-Wan turns from the window and paces the other way.
"It's been ten rotations since Master Yoda's transmission," Anakin says as the two of us follow him. "I just hope we're not too late."
"Rex, take us down," Obi-Wan says.
Rex turns to us from the control table. "Yes, sir." The Resolute enters the atmosphere as we all exit the bridge. I walk behind Anakin and Obi-Wan next to Ahsoka.
"Are you okay, Soka? I sense you're a bit on edge," I say to her.
"I'm... yeah. It's just that... these are my people, you know?"
"I understand. We'll get to the bottom of this, I'm sure of it."
"I am too. I'll do anything I can to help them."
"As will we. We're in this together," I say as Obi-Wan and I break off from her and Anakin.
"See you down there!" she calls over as Obi-Wan and I board our own gunship. Inside sits a two-person speeder.
"I'm assuming you're the passenger, then?" I joke.
"Absolutely not. I might be old in your eyes, but I'd like to think I'm still far too young to die. I'm not looking to die today because you decided to pull some crazy stunt with this thing." I roll my eyes, amused, as I feel the rumble of the gunship taking off. I hop onto the passenger's side of the speeder. A big gun is attached to it with a pair of goggles hanging from the handle. "Might want to put those on, by the way. It's hard to aim with the wind blowing in your eyes." I grab the goggles and put them onto my face and over my eyes. I look at Obi-Wan, who laughs.
"Hey!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just..." He's cut off by another laugh.
"Shabuir," I mutter.
Obi-Wan's jaw drops, a small smile still lingering on his face. "Who taught you Mando'a?"
"Korkie taught me some. And I made sure he taught me all the words you won't like, specifically for these occasions."
"You're such a pain in my rear sometimes, you know that?"
"You're the one who's making me wear these kriffing goggles and then laughing at me."
"Okay, okay, I'll stop." He looks at me again. I give him an annoyed look, and he starts laughing again.
"Stop it!"
"Then quit giving me that look!" he laughs.
"Then you stop looking at me!"
"Right. Yes." He stops laughing and looks straight forward, trying to maintain a stoic expression. He then breaks and starts wheezing again, sitting his head against one of the control handles as he continues to laugh.
I start to giggle at him. "You're horrible, Obi-Wan. You know, I think you should have to wear these, too, just because of this."
"Oh, no, my Padawan. I have a reputation to uphold." I roll my eyes. "I hope your eyes get stuck like that some day," he then jokes.
"You're relentless."
"No, you're just a bad influence on me, Sparky." I feel the gunship land, and the door opens. Obi-Wan pilots the speeder out the door and I ready my hands on the gun. Rex flies on a solo speeder in between us and Anakin and Ahsoka, who also wears the goggles.
"Notice how Anakin doesn't laugh at Ahsoka," I mutter to Obi-Wan.
"Oh, you're just so mistreated, Arlo," he retorts. We speed towards the city with more of our troopers on speeders and walkers behind us. But no one attacks us.
"Anyone else think it's too quiet?" Ahsoka asks.
"You already know I do," I call back over to her.
"I haven't seen any colonists," Ahsoka tells Anakin.
"They're probably hiding," Anakin says.
"Let's hope they stay hidden," Obi-Wan adds. "It makes our job easier if we don't have to worry about them in battle."
"I don't like it," Rex tells him. "The clankers have never been shy about using civvies as living shields."
"I'm sure they're here somewhere," Anakin assures us. "Let's make for the city center." We make our speeders go faster as we head to the heart of the city. The shirt of engines sound in front of us, and commando droids on their speeders turn the corner and stop in front of us.
"Biker droids, dead ahead!" Ahsoka tells us.
"Squad, tighten up! Form on me!" Anakin commands. We begin to fire at each other.
My first shot hits one dead on. "Oh wow. Didn't know I could do that." Obi-Wan lets out a chuckle as I continue firing, as do Rex, Ahsoka, and the rest of the troopers behind us. Ahsoka pulls out her two sabers and stands up in her seat, deflecting the blasts back at the droids.
"Arlo, cover your side!" she yells over.
"Good idea, on it!" I move the goggles up to my forehead as I stand and pull out my lightsaber. I block their shots swiftly. From the other side, Anakin ignites his saber and chops through a droid as they speed past it. We pass up the droids, but they turn around and chase us so they're firing at us from behind. I turn to face the droids and block more of their blasts as Obi-Wan continues to pilot. But it's not doing much anymore, as we're the furthest away from them. "Ahsoka, I don't think this is doing us much good anymore!"
"You're right!" she calls back. I put my saber away and sit back down, pulling the goggles back over my eyes and reversing the direction on my seat so it's facing behind us, then I begin to fire again as our men speed up ahead of us to let us do the work. Rex makes work of the speeders from behind them while Ahsoka and I shoot from the front. Ahsoka then jumps off her speeder to one of the droid's and cuts off its head, then quickly jumps back over to hers as I shoot down the last one.
"We're all clear, Master," Ahsoka tells Anakin. I turn my seat back around into a forward position.
"You'd make a fair gunpilot, my Padawan," Obi-Wan tells me.
"Better than you," I joke.
He chuckles. "Well let's not get too ahead of ourselves, now." As we near the city's center, we see a new barrage of droids waiting for us. We begin firing at them again.
"Pew pew, ya circuit-brains," I say with a smirk as I knock three out in a row. Beside me, Rex pulls out a handheld cannon. He fires it at one of their tanks and easily destroys it. "Nice shot, Rex!" Meanwhile, Ashoka Force jumps over to the second tank, throws two detonators in the hole, then Force jumps back onto her seat, which is now on the other sided the tank. I toss up one last detonator in the hole for sure measure as Obi-Wan and I speed past, followed closely by Rex and the others.
"Nice throw," Rex says to me as we stop our speeders by Anakin's and watch as the tank explodes.
I put my goggles back on my forehead to admire the sight in all of its glory. "Beautiful, isn't it?" I ask with a smirk.
"Gorgeous," Rex responds.
"Captain, have your men secure the area," Obi-Wan tells him.
"Yes, sir." Rex has the 501st do as Obi-Wan says as some of the 212th come up from not far behind. Obi-Wan and I hop off our speeder and approach three of our men on their walkers, who are lead by Boil. We wave at each other as Obi-Wan speaks.
"How're we doing, Boil?" he asks.
"We're still mopping up clankers here and there, sir. We've established a perimeter around the Governor's tower. No one gets out without a fight," he tells us.
"Good work," Obi-Wan tells him.
"Yeah, Boil, good work," I repeat, mimicking Obi-Wan's voice.
Obi-Wan rolls his eyes with a smile. "You're just on a roll today, aren't you, little one?" Boil tilts his head slightly in confusion at us.
"Obi-Wan made fun of my goggles, even though he made me wear them," I explain to Boil as I pull them down back over my eyes. I can hear him hold back a snicker from under his helmet. "Not you too!"
"I'm sorry, kid, but... that's pretty funny," he says as he chuckles.
Obi-Wan takes the goggles off of my face. "I can hardly take you seriously in those," he chuckles as he turns to Cody. I wave goodbye to Boil, then do the same. Obi-Wan places the goggles on top of a crate by our speeder. "Cody, any word from the Separatist commander?"
"He's barricaded inside. His name is Darts D'Nar," Cody tells us as he pulls a holoprojector from his back. "He has sent you a message, sir." He clicks play and a Zygerrian man appears.
"Master Kenobi," the cat-like man starts. "Come to the tower. We will negotiate terms for surrender."
"Well, that was easy," Obi-Wan says sarcastically.
"He seems just as welcoming as a little house cat," I quip. Suddenly, Anakin pulls the holoprojector to him with the Force and crushes it with his robotic hand.
"Zygerrian scum," he sneers as he throws it to the ground. "I'll handle that slaver." Ahsoka and I share a confused look at his sudden outrage.
"Anakin, he asked for me. I need you to locate the missing Togruta colonists," Obi-Wan tells him.
Anakin sighs. "Fine. I'll have Admiral Yularen initiate a planetary bio-scan." He stalks away. R2 rolls up to us and beeps.
Ahsoka stands up from the scanner she was working on and walks up to Obi-Wan and I. "Why is he so upset?"
"Anakin has never talked about his past, has he?" Obi-Wan questions.
"Only to tell me he won't talk about it," Ahsoka tells him.
Obi-Wan's voice gets quieter. "As a child, Anakin and his mother were sold into slavery by the Hutt clans."
"...Oh," Ahsoka murmurs. I frown out of sympathy. I know what it's like to come from a bad background and want to forget it all. I had no idea, and apparently, neither did Ahsoka. "And these Zygerrians, they're slavers?"
He nods. "Anakin has struggled to put his past behind him."
Ahsoka sighs. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him." We look at Anakin, talking to Admiral Yularen through a hologram.
"Yes. Make sure you do. Let's go, Arlo." I nod, and the two of us start towards the tower in silence. We step onto a platform, and it starts up to the very top. "Something on your mind, my Padawan?"
"...No, nothing much."
"Ah. Well, I'm going to go ahead and tell you that you're going to have a run-in with your past someday, too, whether you want to or not. We all do, eventually."
"...How'd you—?"
"I'm not a fool, my Padawan. But focus on the now, not the unknown future. And... try to let me do the talking, here. Trust me."
We begin to hear voices from above. "Why are you still there?"
"I am going to make the Jedi pay for their arrogance," the voice of D'Nar says. "I have them right where I want them." An opening forms above us as the platform pushes us up the rest of the way up into a yellow tinted, mostly windowed room, lined with cages of animals by the walls. I stand slightly behind Obi-Wan and cross my arms. D'Nar looks up at the sound of our arrival.
"Do tell," Obi-Wan says with a smirk. Two commando droids point their blasters at our heads. We put our hands up in surrender. Or, what they think is surrender. Two people on a hologram turn to face us. A Zygerrian, and the face I recognize to be Count Dooku.
"Gentlemen, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight," Dooku introduces. "And you must be his infamous new student, Arlo Just. I do wish we could have first met in person, but it's a pleasure, nonetheless."
"Pleasure's mine, Count," I reply with a semi-disgusted look on my face.
"You'd think someone with your reputation would at least be a bit more grown up, wouldn't you?" he questions.
"Yeah. And you would also think someone with your notoriety wouldn't be about to be put into a retirement home, but here we are. Funny, isn't it?"
"Oh, Maker," Obi-Wan mutters to himself, hardly audible.
Dooku sneers at me, then looks at Obi-Wan. "You just can't escape the cheeky apprentices, can you, my friend?" He turns back around to D'Nar in his chair. "D'Nar, bring them to me... on their knees."
"With pleasure," D'Nar replies and ends the call.
Obi-Wan practically saunters up to the desk D'Nar sits at, hands still up, while I stay where I am by the platform and put my hands down. "We were going to discuss surrender?" Obi-Wan questions.
"Yes," D'Nar answers as he puts his feet up on the desk. "You will surrender."
"We obviously have a misunderstanding, my friend." He places his hands behind his back and presses the button on his com discreetly, so Anakin can listen in, then moves them back to his sides.
"No, you are wrong, Jedi," D'Nar tells him as he strokes some sort of bird in his arms.
"Am I? You're no doubt aware you're droid forces have been destroyed and you are surrounded. Do the honorable thing and give up now, D'Nar. I promise you will receive fair treatment."
"You've broken through my defenses. You think you've won. Think again. I have planted bombs all over the city. No one will survive. Now, surrender."
"If you're not bluffing, then I must concede, but you'll have to make considerations. First, you'll release the colonists."
"Here is my... counteroffer." The droid behind him presses a button. We hear and explosion, and the tower rumbles. I jog up to the window behind me. A bomb had went off right near where our troops were set up. Obi-Wan runs up to the window next to me and looks out. "There were no colonists in that structure, but there could have been. Now, bow down and surrender to me, you Jedi filth." He slams his fist on the table. Obi-Wan and I watch as two walkers, rode by Anakin and Ahsoka, start away from the bombing zone. The two of us share a look.
"They're going to find the bombs," I say to him through the Force.
"Yes. Now trust me, here," he replies.
I nod. "Always do, Master." He takes my lightsaber off of my belt and approaches the table once again, while I turn to face them and place my hands behind my back.
He places the sabers on the table before D'Nar, then puts his hands back up in the air. "Very well. We surrender."
D'Nar stands up from his chair. "Long before this war, you Jedi destroyed the Great Zygerrian Slave Empire." He clenches his fist in the air. "I would kill you now, but Dooku would prefer you alive."
"I understand your frustration. It is unfortunate that you and I cannot resolve our differences as your do in the Zygerrian tradition."
The bird in D'Nar's arms chirps and flies away onto a perch. D'Nar laughs at Obi-Wan as he towers over him. "With no weapons, you would fight me?"
"For good reason," Obi-Wan says. I shake my head. I know this won't work very well. At least, it won't unless Anakin and Ahsoka can find these bombs really kriffing quickly. Obi-Wan may be good with a lightsaber, but he's no good at any other form of physical combat. He's strong, but only an average strong. He relies on the Force. And in this situation, he can't use that.
"I want the girl on her knees. This is between us. She will not intervene." The commando droids point their blasters at me from a distance. I roll my eyes and oblige, putting my hands up behind my head and sinking to the ground on both knees. D'Nar nods in approval.
"Say, if I win, you reveal the location of the colonists and the bombs."
"And if I win, I'll deliver you and your child here to Dooku in a cage, like one of these filthy creatures."
"Perhaps," Obi-Wan retorts. D'Nar snickers as he grabs Obi-Wan by the collar and headbutts him, then throws him back into a pile of grates near me. D'Nar pick him up and throws him on his back, then into a statue with such force that it breaks. The creatures around us chatter loudly.
"Don't. Do. Anything." Obi-Wan warns me though the Force. "I don't care how bad this gets. I have a plan. Do you understand?"
"...I understand."
"Careful," D'Nar says as he stalks towards Obi-Wan. "You're disturbing my pets. They fetch a high price." D'Nar throws a punch at Obi-Wan, who rolls over and barely avoids it. He stands up and continues to avoid his blows left and right. D'Nar picks up a cage and tries to hit Obi-Wan with it, but he narrowly dodges it, causing the cage to crack the glass wall. He throws another cage to the side and charges at him again, and Obi-Wan finally lands a punch on his face. My eyes widen in genuine surprise. At this rate, I definitely didn't expect that to happen. He goes to throw another punch, but D'Nar retaliates by catching it and throwing his own punch right in the stomach, knocking the wind out of Obi-Wan. He lands on the ground on his stomach. He lifts up Obi-Wan's head. "For thousands of years, Zygerria supplied slave labor across the galaxy." He pushes Obi-Wan's head back down and send him skidding across the floor. D'Nar towers over him. "We prospered." He punches Obi-Wan back down as he begins to get back up. "Our customers prospered." He punches his head back down again. "Then the Jedi came." He punches Obi-Wan in the gut, sending him flying back on top of the table, gasping for air. He leans up as D'Nar approaches and headbutts his head back down into the desk. He puts his hands around his throat and pushes down as hard as possible. Obi-Wan chokes and gasps for air as he tries to pull D'Nar's hands off of his neck. Suddenly, the holotransmitter on the desk begins to beep.
"Uh, excuse me, sir," a battle droid starts. "We have a problem."
"What problem?" D'Nar questions, annoyed. Obi-Wan uses his moment of distraction to punch him right across the face.
"Our spotters are tracking two enemy walkers moving—" the droid starts. Obi-Wan slams D'Nar's head straight into the transmitter, shattering the glass and destroying it. D'Nar growls angrily at him and throws Obi-Wan across the room like he's nothing. He slides on his back towards me and the back of his head hits and rests against the front of my thigh. I start to move my hands down to help him back up.
"No, Arlo," he mutters. I nod as he pulls himself back up off the ground with a groan. "Come on, Anakin. Hurry up." He charges at D'Nar again and throws a punch, which is blocked. D'Nar punches him in the face three times, then in the stomach. Obi-Wan falls on all fours, coughing. D'Nar kicks him in the face, flipping him onto his side. He lifts Obi-Wan over his head and smirks at me. I glare back at him as he throws Obi-Wan into the ground, the glass on the floor shattering from the force. D'Nar drags him across the floor closer to me and holds him by the neck up in the air with one hand.
"Now I'll take revenge for my people, Jedi," he sneers.
His droid walks up to him. "Sir, you have an urgent transmission." The droid holds out a holoprojector in its hand.
"Sorry to interrupt, sir," the same battle droid from before says, "but you weren't responding."
"What is it?" D'Nar angrily questions.
"Uh... the Jedi have disarmed your bombs."
I smirk as D'Nar angrily looks at the hologram. "What?" He throws Obi-Wan into the ground and turns to the droid. "Give me the detonator," he commands as he takes the button from the droid and runs up to the window. He presses the button, and nothing happens. I figure now is a good time to get up off my knees. I shake out my arms that had been above my head the whole time and rush over to Obi-Wan. I kneel to him and help him stand back up. I wipe the blood off of a small cut on his cheek with my thumb and wipe it on my pant leg. He brushes the dust off of his shoulder.
"It certainly took him long enough this time," he tells me. I smile at his sarcasm as we turn to the two commando droids standing by the desk. We each lift one into the air and crush them with the Force, letting them fall to the ground. We then grab our sabers off the table with the Force and turn to D'Nar. "Well... shall we discuss your surrender?" Obi-Wan questions as he holds his saber out to the side. D'Nar turns back around from the with to face us, and Obi-Wan ignites his blue blade.
"Again?" I add as I turn on my gold saber with a twirl.
"I still have one bomb left, Jedi," he tells us. He turns his droid around and presses a few buttons on its back.
"Sir, how could you?" the droid asks. D'Nar throws it on top of the two of us as it beeps rapidly. "Ah! No!" D'Nar grabs his bird and begins to make a run for it. Obi-Wan and I push the droid off. "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"
D'Nar escapes through the platform we came up in. Obi-Wan and I Force push the droid through the window, shattering it, and the bomb goes off as the droid falls.
Obi-Wan presses the com button on his wrist. "Anakin. Anakin, come in. D'Nar is making his escape from the tower."
"On our way," Anakin replies and ends the call. Obi-Wan and I rush over to the platform, and it begins to take us down back to ground level.
"Well, you certainly took a beating there, Master," I say.
"It was quite a humbling experience," he replies jokingly.
"I wish I could've helped. You're bantha fodder at fist fights, you know."
"I say you did perfectly, Arlo. This was the plan all along. Except... not the escaping part. But be reasonable, do you really think you would have done much better than me? He's three times your size."
"First of all, size matters not," I quote. "And second, I grew up watching people get in full on brawls over death sticks just for fun, Master. I bet you I would've landed at least four more hits on him than you did."
"Yes, well, I'd rather have myself get beat up by, in your words, a little house cat, than you, little one."
"I doubt my face would be as bruised as yours. Hey, do you think if you wore those goggles, you wouldn't have a black eye right now?"
"Oh, shut up, Arlo." The platform settles on the ground and we run out the back door onto the platform where D'Nar's ship is. We ignite our sabers as we chase him from a distance. The ground rumbles as his ship takes off and flies up into the sky. Obi-Wan and I turn off our sabers. But lo and behold, Anakin and Ahsoka come running in our direction from behind on their walkers. They run and jump their walkers off of the platform, then Force jump up to D'Nar's ship. Anakin destroys the engine with his saber, and the ship begins to tilt.
"And you call me reckless?" I question as I cross my arms and look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. I do. Because you would've done the same exact thing."
"...Fair. Now come on, let's go get some ice on that eye of yours."
"More like ice on that everything of mine," he mutters. I laugh as we walk back out to where our men were set up, still recovering from the bomb.
"Hey, Cody!" I call out. He turns to me while tending to another trooper. "By any chance, do we have a spare cold pack around here?"
"Yes, we do, sir," he answers as he walks over to Kix, who's also taking care of injured men, and grabs the unused one next to him. "General, are you okay?"
"I'm just fine, Cody, thank you," Obi-Wan says. He sits down on a large crate. I take the cold pack from Cody and place it up against Obi-Wan's eye as I sit next to him. He winces at the cold.
"What happened?" Cody then asks as he takes off his helmet and takes a seat on the other side of Obi-Wan.
"His plan was to let himself get beat to a pulp by a house cat while I was on my knees watching," I tell Cody.
"It worked, did it not?" Obi-Wan argues.
"He's escaping right now, Master."
"But it bought Anakin time to disable the bombs, did it not?"
"I suppose."
Cody snickers slightly at our bickering. "Well I'm glad you're okay, sir. We have a few injured men from the one bomb, but none dead."
"That's good to hear," I say.
"Commander Just, over here!" Boil calls over to me. Him, Rex, Fives, and Wooley all sit up against one of our tanks, helmets off. Obi-Wan takes the cold pack and holds it up against his own eye, then shoos me away over to the four men. Boil tosses me the goggles as I approach. "Show them your goggles, kid."
"Seriously, Boil?" I question with a soft laugh.
"Come on, Commander, we want to see!" Rex says. The other three murmur in agreement.
I sigh. "Fine." I put the goggles on over my eyes. The four men howl with laughter. "Oh, come on!"
"Cody, Cody, you've got to see this!" Rex calls over to Cody.
"See what?" Cody asks. I turn to him in my goggles. He tries to suppress a laugh by covering up his mouth with his hand. Obi-Wan laughs at us.
"Not you too, Cody!" I exclaim, trying to hide the smile on my face.
"I'm sorry, sir, but..." Cody tries to find the right words but instead breaks and starts to laugh.
"Alright, if Cody's laughing, it's bad," I say as I take the goggles off. I toss them back at Boil. "You try them, then, boys." We spend the rest of the time waiting for Anakin and Ahsoka to get back messing around with the goggles, trying them on and making faces at each other. We even got Cody and Obi-Wan to try them on with much reluctance, especially on Obi-Wan's part. Once they get back, we contact the Council to tell them the situation. Obi-Wan and I stand slightly behind Anakin and Ahsoka. Admiral Yularen suddenly shows up on R2's hologram as we brief the Council.
"General Skywalker, I ran the bio-scan twice, but the results were negative," Yularen tells him.
"Are you saying the colonists are not in the city?" Anakin questions.
"I'm saying they're not even on the planet," Yularen says. "The entire population appears to have simply vanished."
"Vanished? That's impossible," Ahsoka states. "Those are my people." Obi- Wan strokes his beard next to me in thought.
"Troubling, is the return of the Zygerrians," Master Yoda says.
"It is likely they mean to use Dooku to rebuild their slaver empire," Master Plo adds.
"We cannot allow that, Master," Anakin says.
"Agree, I do. But first, find the colonists, you must. In great danger, they are," Yoda says.
"What is it, Master?" Master Plo asks him.
"Sense, I do, a darker hand in this mystery. Slavery, a great tool, it is, for the rise of the Sith."
—
poor arlo can't catch a break with those dang goggles 😅 i'm really excited for this next chapter because honestly it's probably one of the best episodes in season 4, i'm wondering if there's a way i could work on it at school tomorrow... eh, we'll see. hopefully it's up soon :) also, i actually proofread this chapter and i never realized how many typos I have, that's a little embarrassing for my imo 😭 so i've decided that i'll probably go back and fix any mistakes once the book is or is close to being finished. which might be a while, but i'm wayyy to lazy to do it now.
thanks for reading! -a 🪐