sparky // a padawan story

chapter 33. ahsoka's friend.

"Well this is a surprise."
"A good one, I hope," Korkie replies as I walk off the ship in front of Senators Amidala, Mothma, and Organa, along with Ahsoka.
"Of course it is," I say as I hug the boy, which he reciprocates. I swear he gets a little taller every time I see him. It makes me feel like I haven't grown at all, though I have. But he has the same reddish-blonde hair and blue eyes as always.
I wasn't lying when I said I was surprised. I came to the neutral planet of Mandalore to help guard Senator Amidala with Ahsoka during a sanctioned meeting between the Republic and Separatists, just in case anything happens, at the request of Anakin.
"Hello, Arlo, dear," Satine greets.
I offer her a small bow. "Always a pleasure, Duchess." Beside me, Korkie and Ahsoka say hello. The senators then greet Satine, and we start towards the palace. Korkie, Ahsoka, and I walk behind the senators as they talk.
"So, Korkie, what made you decide to tag along?" Ahsoka questions.
"Just wanted to say hello. Though I'm not staying for the actual meeting."
"That's fortunate for you," I mutter.
"Still not 'brave' enough for politics, as you say?"
"Absolutely not."
"So you can't sit around and listen to a debate or discussion because you're not 'brave' enough, but you can fall from almost all the way at the top of Coruscant through the middle of afternoon traffic and almost land in the underworlds, and consider it no big deal. Makes sense," he jokes. Ahsoka laughs.
I roll my eyes. "Shabuir."
Korkie's eyes widen. "...You actually remember that?"
"Only the bad ones. And, um, ouch, I think?"
"What'd she say?" Ahsoka asks him. "She says it all the time."
"Let's just say it's a really strong word for jerk," Korkie tells her. "Wait... did you say all the time?"
"Yeah," Ahsoka says. "Why would you teach her that?"
"You know, Ahsoka, I really don't know. But I'm starting to regret it," Korkie says as he shakes his head.
"Come on, it's pretty funny," I say.
"...A little. But only a little." I smile slightly to myself and look down. I notice the small braided bracelet I made on Coruscant.
My small smile breaks into a grin as I point to the string. "You still have it?"
He holds up his wrist. "Of course I do." We stop walking as we reach the door to the palace. "Well, I guess I should leave now. Enjoy your meeting," he says, poking fun at me.
"Oh, I most certainly won't, my friend."
"Come see me if you have time afterwards, I think the others would love to say hi, too."
"We will," I tell him.
"If we have time. If not, tell them we say hello, and it was good seeing you, Korkie," Ahsoka says.
"You as well, Ahsoka. Arlo," he says with a small smile and wave, and walks in the opposite direction. Ahsoka and I walk into the palace behind the senators and duchess. The politicians give each other a respectful greeting as they sit at across from each other, and Satine goes and sits on her throne to mediate. Ahsoka and I stand on either end of the senators, Ahsoka next to Padmé and I next to Senator Mothma. Mandalorian guards stand behind us and the senators on both sides. I zone out slightly as the meeting begins.
"Thinking about Korkie?" Ahsoka asks me through the Force.
"Very funny, Soka, but no. I'm just bored."
"Sure you are. You two are so oblivious, you know."
"No, we're not. And politics are boring, how can you possibly expect me to pay full attention?"
"And, sadly, they're also necessary. We should probably pay attention, just in case."
"Right." I begin to listen to the conversation.
"The Republic recognizes the tragedy of war," Padmé says, "but there is nothing we can change that has already occurred."
"Say it aloud before this gathering as representative for Chancellor Palpatine, that you declare, without reservation, the Separatist state legitimate," one of the Separatist senators demands. My face hardens, and Padmé has a sad look on her face. She can't say that. They are not legitimate. All they do is wreak havoc on the galaxy.
Suddenly, a young boy Ahsoka and I's age barges into the room. Dark brown, almost black hair, and fairly tall, but not as tall or lanky as Korkie is. "I have something to say about the legitimacy of the Separatists," he says firmly. I look over at Ahsoka, who smirks at him, as if she knows him.
"It's Lux Bonteri."
"Why is Lux Bonteri here?"
"What could he possibly have to say?"
"He was not invited."
Ahsoka leans down to Padmé. "You didn't mention that Lux Bonteri would be here," she mutters.
"I didn't know," Padmé whispers back.
I look at Ahsoka, slightly confused. "You know him?" I mouth to her. She gives me an 'I'll tell you later' nod. This Lux Bonteri guy bows before Satine, who gestures for him to begin. He steps before the podium.
"I stand before you, son of Mina Bonteri, loyal Separatist, a patriot, a friend," Lux begins. Him and Ahsoka share a small smile. My brows furrow in confusion at the two of them. But then, Lux's face hardens as he begins to address what he really came here for. "It has come to my attention that my mother was murdered by Count Dooku in cold blood!"
"That is a lie!" one of the Separatists immediately interjects, standing and raising an accusatory finger at him. "Remove this traitor immediately." Ahsoka starts towards the boy as two commando droids come and take ahold of him, dragging him away, but Padmé holds her back.
"I will not be silenced!" Lux shouts as he's forced away.
Satine is clearly outraged by the Separatist's actions in taking away Lux, as she is still an avid pacifist. She stands from her throne. "Stop this!" she shouts.
Another one of the Separatist senators stands from her chair. "We would ask you to respect that we deal with this matter ourselves."
"No, Dooku is deceiving you! You will all be betrayed, just like my mother!" Lux calls back as the doors close behind him and the droids.
"I apologize for such a rude interruption," the make Separatist says as he sits back down. "Please let us continue." I see Ahsoka lean down and whisper something to Padmé out of the corner of my eye. Padmé whispers something back, and Ahsoka nods. She taps my shoulder as she walks past me to tell me to follow her, which I do. I offer a small wave to Satine as I exit, and she shoots me a discreet smile back.
"We're going after him," Ahsoka tells me once we get out of the palace.
"So you know him?" I question.
"I do. I met him on Raxus while with Padmé, you were with Master Kenobi chasing down Ziro the Hutt."
"Wait, you went into Separatist space? Isn't that—?"
"Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a long story, I'll tell you later, but you can't mention it to anyone, yeah?"
"Fine. As long as you actually tell me."
"I will." We hide behind a short control tower as we watch the two commandos take Lux into custody on a Separatist ship. The two of us hop down onto a lower ledge of the platform leading to the ship and run across it carefully. We jump back up and sneak past the two droids standing guard, then enter an elevator, which takes us up to the control room.
I hear the voice of Dooku from a hologram inside. "Kill him!"
"Looks like we go here just in time," I mutter to Ahsoka. She nods as the doors to the elevator open.
"Ahsoka?" Ahsoka pushes one of the commandos back with the Force, then kicks the other one back with it.
"Lux, I think it's time to go, don't you?" Ahsoka asks as she holds her hand out to him. He takes it, and they stay there for a moment. I don't notice at first, but then I realize... they totally like each other. Oh, this is good.
But we're still in the middle of a Separatist ship. I roll my eyes and clap twice to get their attention. "Yeah, yeah, enough with the moment, get in the elevator! Pep in your step, folks, let's move!" Ahsoka drags Lux into the elevator and presses the down button, then coms R2.
"R2, fire up the engines. We're leaving."
"You're Arlo, aren't you? Ahsoka's mentioned you before," Lux says.
"All good things, right?" I joke. "Good to meet you."
"You too." The elevator doors open, and we run out of the ship. Ahsoka and I each take out a commando guard.
"Run!" Ahsoka tells Lux as we make a sprint for our ship past a few commandos. They begin to fire at us as we enter the hallways of the palace. "Hurry, hurry!"
"Ahsoka, I appreciate your help, but—"
"Keep moving," Ahsoka tells him. Glass begins to shatter as the missed shots from the commandos hit the walls, and we exit through a door leading straight to our ship. "Captain Taggart, we've got incoming clankers!"
"We'll cover you, sir!" The guards at our ship begin firing back as we board as the ship flies away. R2 beeps as we enter the cockpit and pulls up a transmission of Anakin. Ahsoka sits in the pilot's seat, Lux sits next to her, and I stand between them.
"Ahsoka, Padmé just contacted me. She told me the peace negotiations have all but collapsed. Where are you and Arlo?"
"We're en route to Coruscant, Master. We have Lux Bonteri with us," Ahsoka tells him.
"Master Jedi, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble," Lux says.
"It's nothing," Ahsoka answers before Anakin can. "You will be safe now with the Republic." Lux looks down at his lap.
"All right, bring Bonteri to Coruscant immediately, and we'll discuss giving him amnesty," Anakin tells us.
"Yes, Master," Ahsoka says as she ends the call. I pat R2, and point at the door of the cockpit. The two of us exit and close the door behind us. He beeps to ask me why.
"Just give them a minute. I'm sure they have a lot to catch up on. Want to go make tea with me?" He beeps yes. We walk towards the kitchenette and I begin to boil some water, then mix the tea in. R2 chirps to tell me I put the tea in too early. "But this is how Obi-Wan makes it." He tells me that Obi-Wan is a better cook than I am. "Hey! I'd like to see you do better." He says he probably could. "Oh, whatever." I hear some sort of zap come from the cockpit. "...Could you check that out, R2?" He beeps a yes and rolls out of the kitchenette. I feel the ship jump into hyperspace. But we shouldn't be in hyperspace yet...
I jog over to the cockpit. "Ahsoka, what are you—?" I see Ahsoka passed out in the copilot's chair. "...What happened to Ahsoka?"
"She's asleep. She seemed quite tired," Lux very obviously lies. I look and see a zapper sitting in his lap.
"...Do you really think I'm that stupid?" I question as I grab the zapper with the Force and hold it up.
"Look, I can explain—"
"You're damn lucky that Ahsoka seems to trust you, Bonteri, or else I would've already been finished kicking your ass for this. Now where are you taking our ship?"
"I'm not joining your Republic. I found a group that's also in it to kill Dooku."
I snicker. "You really think you can kill Dooku? Aren't senators supposed to be smart?"
"Aren't Jedi supposed to be nice?"
"I'm a nice person. I just don't trust you so much anymore. So where's this group you're joining?"
"Carlac."
"Carlac? Stars, I don't like you."
"What's so wrong with Carlac?"
"I don't like the cold. And it's, like, really cold there. So where else do you want to go without telling us? Perhaps Lola Sayu, we can take a vacation to the Citadel? I've been there once, totally recommend it," I say sarcastically. "Or maybe even we could stop by Zygerria, and play slaves with the cats again? Oh, or we could go to Nal Hutta, the smell—"
"Okay, okay, I get it. You don't like me, you don't like Carlac, what do you like?"
"Chopping up clankers and going to Coruscant."
"Well, hate to break it to you, we're already in hyperspace, so there's no turning back now."
"Yeah, I'm aware. And now, thanks to you, we're gonna have to refuel on Carlac once we drop you off, because we're running low. Good job."
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt Ahsoka."
"But you did."
"That still doesn't mean I wanted to. I'm... I'm quite fond of her."
"Fond. Right."
"I am!"
"Once again, not stupid. You like her." He sighs, but doesn't respond to me, as the ship exits lightspeed and begins to approach Carlac. "And I may not like you, at all, as a matter of fact... but a friend of Ahsoka's is a friend of mine."
"So I guess that makes us friends," he says as the ship settles on the ground.
I hold out my hand to him, and he shakes it. "I guess it does." I start out of the cockpit again towards the kitchenette while R2 stays with Ahsoka. "But if you try to pull anymore funny business like that again, Bonteri, I won't hesitate to kick your ass next time."
"I'm sure you won't." I roll my eyes as I enter the kitchenette. I pour some of the tea out into a cup and start to look through the cabinets for some sugar.
"Arlo!" I hear Ahsoka call.
"In the kitchen!" I yell back. I hear her footsteps walk towards me and into the kitchen. "Good to see you up. Do you know what he—?"
"Yeah, I know, I'm about to go talk to him."
"Where'd he even go?"
"Outside. He took my lightsabers, did he take yours?"
"No—" I start, but I finally find the sugar in one of the overhead cabinets. "Aha! There it is." I set the small bag of sugar next to the tea and begin looking for spoons.
"Well, he took mine. I have R2 looking for them right now."
"I don't know what you see in him, Ahsoka."
"What do you mean—?"
"I know you like him, and I know he likes you too." I smirk. "So you have no room to tease me about Korkie anymore."
She rolls her eyes with a smile. "Whatever. I'm still gonna poke fun at you."
"Yeah, but now I'm gonna have good comebacks."
"Sure you will," she says as she walks away. I find the utensils in a drawer and take a teaspoon out, scooping it into the sugar and putting two spoonfuls into my tea. I stir it around and take a sip. It's not at all warm enough. I dump it out in the sink and put the kettle back on the stove to let it warm up some more, when I suddenly get a call on my com.
"Ahsoka—?"
Ahsoka speaks in a hushed voice. "Arlo, whatever happens, do not leave the ship. I can't explain right now, but do. Not. Leave. Lux might've gotten himself into something. Don't call me. R2's with me. Be sure we're ready to leave at all times. Ahsoka out."
I sigh as she ends the call and I speak to myself. "Great. Now I'm alone. I guess I should refuel the ship, then, if we have to be ready to go." I exit the kitchenette and grab a long, fuzzy coat from the closet and wrap it around me. I put up the hood and button it up all the way, then put a pair of mittens on my hands. I grab one of the emergency fuel jerrycans from the supply room and exit the ship onto the cold yet beautiful terrain. Trees with light pink blossoms line the snowy ground. I make my way to the ship's tank and empty the fuel into it as quick as possible so I can get out of the cold. Once I'm done, I place the empty jerrycan back in storage and grab a blanket for myself. I strip from the coat and mittens and place them back in the closet, then I return to the kitchenette to check on my tea. I pour myself a new cup and stir in two spoons of tea, then head back to the cockpit. I sit in the pilot's chair crisscross and I wrap the blanket around my shoulders. I grip my tea cup with both hands as I wait for it to cool down slightly. The transmitter suddenly beeps. "Transmission from... Mandalore?" I patch the call through as Satine and Korkie pop up in hologram form.
"Arlo, did you get to Lux Bonteri okay?" Satine asks.
"Yeah, we did, but he put us on a bit of a de course on our way back to Coruscant. Not willingly. Kind of a long story. But I somehow got stuck watching the ship. We're on Carlac, currently."
"Arlo, Carlac is where the Death Watch was last seen," Satine tells me.
I pinch the bridge of my nose while my other hand keeps a grip on the tea cup. "Of course this was where they were last seen. Because why wouldn't it be?"
"You all just be careful, Arlo. I just wanted to let you know."
"Thank you, Satine. So how'd the rest of the meeting go?"
"About as well as you'd expect."
"...So horribly?"
"Precisely."
"Sorry for running off on no notice at all, by the way."
"I understand. It's completely fine," Satine assures. "I suppose we'll leave you to watching the ship, then."
"Be safe, Arlo," Korkie says.
"Always am," I reply.
Satine tries to hide a laugh while Korkie shakes his head. "No, Arlo. You never are."
"Yes, I am! Right, Satine?"
"I'm sorry, Arlo... but I'm going to have to side with Korkie on this one," she says with a giggle.
"Oh, whatever. I should probably contact Obi-Wan, let him know what's going on."
"I was about to suggest you do that," Satine says. "We hope to see you soon, Arlo."
"As well as I," I say as the call ends. I then try to contact Obi-Wan.
"I know they start with the same letter, Arlo, but Carlac is not the same as Coruscant," my master says as his hologram appears before me.
"Well no shit."
"Language."
"Right, right. Well, Ahsoka's little friend Lux Bonteri brought us here. Not willingly."
"So you're telling me he pretty much hijacked your ship?"
"Basically, yes. He zapped Ahsoka while I was in the back making tea, which I have right here." I hold up my cup to show him and take a sip, but automatically spit it back into the cup with a grimace and wipe my tongue on my sleeve.
Obi-Wan tries to hold back a laugh. "That's nasty, Arlo, don't..." He breaks out into laughter.
"Is it possible to burn tea?" I ask him.
He laughs even more. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you, little one."
I roll my eyes as I set the gross tea to the side, scrunching my nose at the charred flavor that remains in my mouth. "Anyways, he said he had some deal with a group here. Him, Ahsoka, and R2 went to check it out, but Ahsoka told me to stay with the ship and don't contact her. Apparently, Carlac is where Death Watch was last seen, so I'm thinking that's the group he made the deal with."
"He made a deal with Death Watch? Does he even know—?"
"I can almost assure he doesn't. He's definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. But, like I said, I somehow got stuck watching the ship, and I'm bored out of my mind."
"It's probably a good thing you're not with them. I can imagine they'd recognize you from last time."
"That's true."
"I'll leave you to it, then."
"No, don't go, I'm bored!"
"Sorry, little one, but I'm afraid I have to. Why don't you try making that tea again? But this time, try steeping it for 7 minutes. I promise it'll work."
"If you say so. See you later, Master."
"Until then, my Padawan." He ends the call. I sigh and look out the window. The sun is starting to set.
"I guess I'll try out the tea in the morning," I say to myself. I curl up in the pilot's chair and pull the blanket closer around me, then start to hum softly to myself as the sunset turns to darkness.
—
"Arlo, come in, Arlo. Hey. Wake up, Arlo." I eyes flutter open. I'm still curled up in the chair from the night before. "Morning, sleepyhead." I jolt up once I realize someone's talking to me, but relax when I see Obi-Wan's hologram in front of me. He chuckles at me. "Didn't mean to startle you, little one. Did you sleep okay, then?"
"I suppose I did," I say groggily.
"I'm assuming you haven't heard from Ahsoka?"
"Not yet, no."
"Hm. Well, stay alert. The senators were safely returned to Coruscant last night."
"That's good to hear."
"Yes. Now try not to go back to sleep, I know it's early, but anything could happen. They're dealing with Death Watch, after all."
"Right. Say, how long did you tell me to steep the tea for?"
"7 minutes."
"Okay. I'm gonna make some tea, then."
"You do that. If you need help with the Watch, or the tea, you know where to find me."
"That I do." He gives me a smile as he ends the call. I wrap the blanket back around my shoulders and grab the cup of bad tea from last night, then head to the kitchenette. I dump out the now-cold tea into the sink and start to boil more water. I mix in the tea and let it steep for 7 minutes, like Obi-Wan said. I pour it into the cup and put two spoons of sugar in it, then blow on it and take a sip. "Oh wow. That's pretty good." I hop off the counter and take the tea back to the cockpit. I sit back down in the pilot's chair and sigh out of boredom.
—
Hours.
I have sat around for hours.
The sun is down, and the beginnings of a blizzard begin to flurry around outside.
I've done everything I could possibly do in this ship. I've cleaned, attempted to cook, cleaned again to straighten up the mess I made while cooking, called Obi-Wan again, called Cody (who thought it was an emergency at first), called Obi-Wan again, practiced some new lightsaber moves, accidentally put a slash in the ceiling while doing said lightsaber training. You name it, I probably did it.
I currently lay of the floor of the cockpit and groan out of boredom as the com on my wrist suddenly beeps.
"Hey, Arlo, sorry, we got caught up with—" Ahsoka starts through the com.
"Death Watch. I know, Satine called to tell me. Do you need help? Please say you need help, I've sat around here doing nothing for forever."
"We're currently making our escape. Do you mind firing up the ships?"
"Don't have to tell me twice." She ends the call as I stand up and start to fire up the ships. After a few minutes, their speeder zooms towards the ship at full speed and they pull to the side. As soon as they board the ship, I take off and begin to track our course to Coruscant. Ahsoka and R2 walk into the cockpit with me. "Finally."
"I'm really sorry, Arlo."
"It's fine. Where's Bonteri?"
"Cleaning himself up, I guess."
"Didn't pull any more funny business, right?"
"No. You know, he's quite nice when you get to know him."
"I'm sure." R2 beeps from beside Ahsoka.
"No one followed us. Good job, R2," she says.
"Um... Ahsoka? Is there a reason the escape pod's been activated?" I question as I point to the control board.
"What do you mean, 'the escape pod has been activated'?" she questions. R2 beeps at her. "Lux! Come on, Arlo, we have to go get him!"
"Ahsoka... you should probably do this on your own."
"...Right. The ship is yours, then." She runs out of the cockpit. R2 chirps.
"She's okay, R2. I hope." An alert shows up on the control board as Ahsoka walks back into the cockpit sadly. The escape pod was released. She plops into the copilot's seat.
"Take us to Coruscant, then," Ahsoka says, hardly audible. I enter the ship into hyperspace.
"Are you okay?" I ask as I turn to her.
"He's gone."
"I'm sure you'll see him again."
"I know. It's just... I really do like him a lot. And I know, I know, we're Jedi—"
"You know what Korkie once told me, Ahsoka? Which, before you say something, has nothing to do with our actual friendship, we were talking about something else. He said just because Jedi can't have attachments, doesn't mean we're not allowed to care."
"I wish I didn't care so much."
"I can imagine. But we can't just not feel anything. Obi-Wan says that it's what we do with our attachment that matters."
"What's that mean?"
"Let it push you to be better, and don't let it cloud your judgement."
She stands up and hugs me. "Thank you, Arlo. So much."
"Of course, Ahsoka."
"...Did I tell you that Lux and I kissed?"
My eyes widen. "You what?"
She laughs. "Yeah, let me tell you!" She goes off into her story of their ensnarement with Death Watch, pretending to be Lux's 'berothed', laughing at the funny parts and gasping at the sudden ones, all our cares in the world disappearing in that moment.
—
i've been getting a lot more love on this story the past few days than i usually do, and i'm so grateful!! it always makes me happy to see that people enjoy my work. meanwhile, this next chapter... i'm in pain just thinking about it. it's a good arc, for sure, but it always makes me sad. poor arlo in advance.
thanks for reading! -a 🪐