sparky // a padawan story

chapter 42. frenemies.

We're held hostage in the air by bonds while Hondo lives it up in his pirate's den, nearing complete intoxication. What's new?
"It would be wise if you would let us go," Ahsoka tells him.
He turns to us. "No, it would be unprofitable if I would let you go, and why would I do something as shortsighted as that?"
"If you don't let us go, you will wish you had been born a protocol droid," Ahsoka threatens.
Hondo chuckles as he walks crookedly towards us, reeking of alcohol. "Sometimes I do anyway. But you are really in no position to make threats, young lady." He holds up his cup to Ahsoka. "You look stressed. Are you thirsty?"
"I definitely don't recommend drinking that," I mutter to Ahsoka.
Hondo pulls the cup away and laughs. "Sorry, but I don't like to share." He takes a swig and plops back into his chair. "You've been awfully quiet, Arlo, m'dear."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know. Oh! Maybe try to talk your way out of this like my pal Kenobi, that'll give me a laugh!"
"Negotiations aren't my strong suit, so I'm not even gonna try it. You can act as high and mighty as you want right now, Hondo, but you know I'm not scared of you."
"Right, right. Sure you aren't." Some time passes as Ahsoka and I watch him get increasingly drunk.
"You know the Republic won't pay a ransom for us," Ahsoka tells him. "And the Separatists can't be trusted. They'll betray you and kill us both."
He begins to pace around us in our bonds. "Yes, I know this, my dear. The Separatists are no friends of mine. Don't ask me why, but Dooku holds such a grudge against me since our little 'I held him hostage' affair. Pah! The truth is, I have my sights set on more nefarious criminals than I, a businessman who will pay handsomely for two Jedi, two female Jedi at that."
"Gross," I mutter.
"You know, you don't scare me either, Hondo," Ahsoka says.
"Ooh!" Hondo laughs. "Oh, by the way. They don't care if you're dead or alive. I mean, I prefer alive. Less messy. But I find my moods so changeable these days."
—
Night has fallen on the musty planet of Florrum, and we follow Hondo, being carried on a chair, outside. Each of us have two pirates keeping a hold on us.
Hondo laughs as he greets someone that we can't see. "Preigo."
"I, Preigo, your humble servant, have searched far and wide, oh, illustrious plunderer of the universe, and found you a most special entertainment."
Hondo laughs once again. "Good! I would hate to be forced to cut off their heads like I did your last act. You remember those guys. You are a brave man to come before me again." He cackles. "Where are my Jedi? I would hate for them to miss the show, which I'm hoping will be better than last time." The pirates push the two of us down to our knees. "Excellent. Let the show begin!"
"Ah, yes, of course," this Preigo guy says. "May I present the, uh, Animal Instincts." He steps to the side and reveals 5 kids flipping out of the circus transport. 5 very familiar looking kids. Ahsoka and I's eyes widen as we share a look.
"Oh, no," we mutter in unison.
Hondo laughs. "I love a kiddie act!" They begin their 'act', flipping around and performing stunts. They're actually pretty good, if I'm being honest. Gungi in disguise beckons Hondo over to join them. "What is this business?"
"I believe he wants you to, uh, be a part of the next stunt," Preigo tells him.
"Oh, does he now?"
"Come with us," a twi'lek woman says as her and another help him off his chair as he chugs down the rest of his drink.
"Which one of you said that?" he asks through drunken laughs as the twi'leks lead him towards the circus. "I may not be as young as I once was, but I'm older!" I internally facepalm at Hondo's comment.
"Stand right here," the twi'lek tells him.
"Who wants to see Hondo's moves?" Hondo asks as he shimmies. The crowd cheers, and I bite back a laugh. "Talk to me, hey!" I was as Katooni in disguise discreetly sneaks Ahsoka and I's lightsabers from Hondo's cape and creeps back towards us. She bends down to us.
"You guys shouldn't be here," Ahsoka tells her.
"Don't worry. We have a plan," she says to us. "I think."
"That's reassuring," I mutter as we all look up to Byph on to of the transport. He jumps down onto the seesaw and send Hondo flying into the air.
"I'm flying!" he shouts moments before he crashes into a bunch of crates. The pirate guards by us run to him.
I snicker. Hondo really is quite stupid when he's drunk. "Nice work." Katooni ignites Ahsoka's shoto and cuts us free of our handcuffs and hands us our respective lightsabers.
"Ah. Well, that was a good act," Hondo says, dazed, as us and the younglings make a run for it.
"It's those bleeding Jedi kids!" we hear a pirate shout. They begin blasting at us from behind. Ahsoka and I, leading the group, fall back and ignite our sabers to block the blasts. And to my surprise, I hear a bunch of other sabers ignite behind us. All of the younglings had completed their lightsabers. All except Katooni. The circus ship takes off and leaves.
"Quick! Get to that speeder!" Ahsoka tells the younglings as we run over to a large abandoned speeder. Ahsoka and I stay in front of the younglings as they fire it up. "Get us out of here!" The speeder flies off away from the pirate's den.
"How do you all feel?" Katooni asks us once we're a safe distance away. Ahsoka and I, along with the younglings, retract our blades.
"Better now," Ahsoka says.
"I agree," I say. Katooni hands us water cantines, which we gratefully accept.
"I forgot water existed. Kriff, the only thing they hand in that den was booze," I joke as the younglings gather around us.
"We could pretend to be angry, but you were all very brave," Ahsoka says. "Thank you."
"We disobeyed orders," Petro says as he takes off his mask.
"Well, I've learned from my master that sometimes doing the right thing means bending the rules," Ahsoka says.
"I can't say the same. Master Kenobi hates it when I 'bend' rules. But he never really stops me, so..." The younglings giggle at my comment.
Petro coms Ganodi. "Ganodi, come in please. Get the ship ready. We need to take off."
—
Ahsoka pilots the speeder as pirates begin to close in on us again. They lame a few hits on us.
"That sounded really comforting," I mutter as I sit in the copilot's seat, unable to do anything of use.
"They'll get over it once we're off their planet," I hear Petro say to Katooni and the others.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Ahsoka calls back.
"Clearly you've never met a pirate before, bud," I add.
"Right. Ganodi, we need a quick evac," Petro says through a com. "Come in, please. Ganodi!"
"Maybe the pirates are jamming the signal," Zatt says. Gungi groans in worry.
"Where could she be?" Katooni asks.
"Ganodi! Huyang! Come in! Ganodi, where are you?"
"I'm here!" Ganodi finally replies. "I was in the back fixing Huyang."
"Great. That's great. But we're all gonna need repairs if you don't have the engines running!" Petro tells her.
"Where are you?"
"Ganodi, it's Ahsoka," Ahsoka calls back as Petro hold the com up to her.
She gasps. "Padawan Tano! What about Arlo?"
"I'm right here, Ganodi," I say.
"We've rescued you!"
"Almost. But we need you to get us home. Are you ready?" Ahsoka asks.
"Just tell me what I need to do," Ganodi replies.
"Okay, fire up the engines and head to these coordinates." Ahsoka transmits a set of coordinates to Ganodi.
"We'll be right there!" Ganodi says. We continue to flee from the pirates as we wait for Ganodi, who eventually flies over us in our ship.
"Looks like our ride is here," Petro says.
"Everyone get topside," Ahsoka commands.
"And stay down!" I add.
"But who's going to pilot the tank?" Petro asks. Me and Ahsoka look around hurriedly.
"Uh... that's a problem, I think," I mutter.
"Yeah," Ahsoka agrees as she looks behind. "Oh! Katooni, grab that mask!" Katooni does as Ahsoka says and hands her the mask. Ahsoka sets it up so it's pushing the controls forward.
"Wow. This will work well," I say sarcastically.
"Uh, that'll have to do," Ahsoka says. The two of us stand and ignite our sabers as we hop back out on top of the speeder and begin blocking blasts, followed by the younglings, who take cover beside us. Our ship suddenly starts to go out of control. Byph and Gungi hang on to Ganodi as she tries to pull them up to our ship. "The steering must have come loose!" Petro rushes back down into the cockpit and sets us straight again as Ahsoka and I continue blocking blasts from the pirate speeder.
"We got him!" Katooni shouts. We start to near a cliff.
"Petro, what are you doing?" I shout down at him. He turns just in time, and we separate from our ship.
"They're coming back!" Katooni yells as our ship comes back for us. Katooni and Zatt hop onto Gungi, hanging onto Byph, hanging onto Ganodi. The pirates shoot at our ship and hit it dead on.
Ahsoka coms R2. "R2, get out of there now!" The ship begins to explode.
"Everyone, let go!" I tell the younglings hanging onto the ramp of the ship.
"Jump down now!" Ahsoka calls. They all let go, and they land on our speeder, followed by Huyang, who was knocked down by R2 flying down behind him. Our speeder crashes into our crashing ship, and we're all sent flying. I land near Ahsoka, sabers knocked out of our hands, and a pirate approaches us. He grabs our sabers.
"Nice try, little Jedi, but it looks like you're coming with us," the pirate sneers. They handcuff us and the younglings and board all of us onto the top of their speeder, taking us back to the lion's den as the sun begins to rise again. After a while, once of the pirates stands and holds binoculars up to his eyes. "What the...? Droids?" He puts his binoculars down. "It's an invasion." Ahsoka and I share a look. Of course the Seppies decide to turn up now. I look out in the distance and see battle droids begin to line up. "This isn't good. Those scrappin' droids are looting the place. They're dismantling our ships."
"The fact the Grievous is here with his entire fleet means that Master Kenobi must've been overrun," I say worriedly. Obi-Wan's okay, right?
"This entire system is now in Separatist controlled space," Ahsoka says.
"What should we do? Katooni asks. "There's nowhere to run."
"You're not running anywhere, skug," the pirate says. I flinch at the word skug. It reminds me too much of the Kadavo slave camps. "You're still my prisoner. Maybe I can trade you to the Separatists in exchange for my freedom."
"Not likely," Ahsoka tells him.
"Grievous didn't come here to make deals," I add. "He already controls the planet and the system. If you hand us over to him, he'll kill us and then you. We have a common enemy in Grievous. Together, we can get out of this. You must have some other ships somewhere. You are pirates."
"Hondo's got a private fleet, but only he knows where the ships are," the pirate says.
"Then we'll have to rescue him," I say. I then gesture to Ahsoka and myself. "We know Grievous. And we know droids. With our help, you stand a better chance. And Hondo trusts me, so why shouldn't you?"
The pirate hesitates for a moment, then blasts our handcuffs off. "You've got yourself a deal, Jedi."
Ahsoka looks at me with a grin. "Didn't you just say negotiating 'isn't your strong suit'?"
"It's really not," I say.
"You sounded just like Master Obi-Wan right then."
I smile. "You think?"
"I know. You're basically the Negotiator, junior."
I laugh. "I wouldn't go that far." We stand and enter the cockpit of the speeder, followed by everyone else, as we approach the pirate's den.
"R2, can you distract them while we sneak in?" Ahsoka asks. He beeps a yes as he pokes his top out of the ship. We sneak out the back and creep behind a pile of crates into the prision chambers of the den, where Hondo was being held captive. Ahsoka and I chop up the droids standing guard and open the door to see Hondo in bonds. Ahsoka and I smirk at him.
"Well, well. How the turntables, my friend," I say.
"Jedi," he says. "And here I thought you made your escape, no?"
"No. There were complications. Now, we have to put our differences aside and be friends, or else we're all gonna die here," Ahsoka tells him.
"Ah, very diplomatic. Ha! I knew you did not come back to rescue Hondo, how do you say it? Out of the goodness of your hearts. No, no, no, no. You need something from me."
"Well, I came because you're my highly problematic friend. But yes, we need something," I say.
"A ship, to be specific," Katooni says as she steps towards Hondo by Ahsoka and I in the front.
"Ah, yes. A ship, a ship. Ah, but where would we find one of those? My new friend General Grievous has destroyed my ships."
"We know you have one, a whole pirate fleet," Petro tells him.
Hondo rolls his eyes. "And one of my old friends, apparently, has been talking too much." He glares at the pirates for a moment. "Ah, what does it matter? We'll never reach the vault anyway. Grievous' army is way too big."
"Don't give up. We can fight!" Petro says.
"If I may, sir," Huyang interjects. "I have instructed younglings for over 1,000 generations, and these are among the best I have ever seen."
"Well, then, show me. Show me your swords, tiny Jedi. Show Hondo you are ready to fight," Hondo tells the younglings. All of the younglings ignite their lightsabers for the pirate. Except for Katooni. "Ah. And you, child. Where is your saber?" he then asks her.
"It's not finished," Katooni tells him as she holds out the pieces. "I never finished it. I've done everything right, but it won't work."
Huyang bends down to her. "You must trust that the components that form your lightsaber are meant to be together. There is no other way. It is the Force that binds them."
"Yes, I was just going to say that," Hondo chimes in. I facepalm and shake my head. "Finish it now. Finish, finish! This is worth the price of a ship. To see the construction of a Jedi lightsaber. This... this is priceless. Finish it, and together, we can defeat Grievous." Katooni sits crisscross on the ground and places all of her parts in front of her.
"You got it, Katooni," I say. She concentrates and lifts the pieces with the Force, turning them to their correct positions.
"Oh. Amazing. That is truly amazing," Hondo sighs. Katooni takes her my bet crystal and places it in the center, then pushes the saber all together. She grabs it and ignites the blue blade with a grin. Hondo smiles, too. "Well, cut me down, little Jedi. It's time to leave." She does just that and Hondo lands on the ground in front of her. The younglings cheer for Katooni.
"So why the big show?" Ahsoka asks Hondo. "You didn't really have a choice. You know we have to work together."
"Because Hondo can't do anything simply, obviously," I mutter to her.
"Because, Jedi, you know what we are about to attempt is very dangerous," he tells Ahsoka as he begins to walk out of the cell. "And I may be a pirate, but I do not like taking children into battle."
"That didn't seem to bother you when you attacked us," Ahsoka says.
Hondo chuckles. "Well, today is a new day! And lucky for you, today, I like children! Now, let's free the rest of my men." We run down the hall and begin to free the pirates.
"You know, Hondo," I say to him as we run, "I think you actually really like kids. I mean, why would you have but up with me on Batuu?"
"Well, you were my pirate protégée, of course! Though I still do think you'd make a fine pirate, if you're not going to keep taking away my profit," he says. We come across a bunch of droids and I ignite my saber and get to work, as do Ahsoka and the younglings. We make quick work and escape through a front door, where Grievous already has a tank and a full company of droids firing at the building. We charge ahead at them, blocking and slicing with ease, and make a break for the land speeders. Ahsoka boards a large speeder with the younglings, while I break off with Katooni, Hondo, and some of his men. I turn off my saber as I hop on the speeder next to Hondo's. Katooni hops on behind Hondo.
"I got your back," she tells him.
"Great, I... feel so safe," Hondo replies sarcastically.
"Don't be a jackass—" I start, but catch myself before I can't completely finish and look at Katooni. "Don't repeat that. Or tell Master Kenobi I said that." Katooni giggles and nods. "Race you all!" I fire up my speeder and get a head start, Hondo close behind.
"Still got those podracing skills I taught you, heh?" Hondo chuckles.
"He taught you how to podrace?" Katooni asks in disbelief.
"Hardly," I say with an eye roll at Hondo. Grievous and his droids chase past us, not far behind. One of Hondo's men gets shot down, and the explosion from it allows us to veer in the opposite direction as them, allowing us to shake them off our tails, but also losing Ahsoka and the others.
"They went the wrong way," Katooni tells Hondo.
"Don't worry," he says as he pulls out a button and presses it, opening a ship garage. We enter and go up to a ship that Hondo lead us to. We get off and the pirates start to the ship, Katooni and I close behind.
"What about the others? We can't just leave them," Katooni tells him.
"You are welcome to come, small one, as are you, Arlo, not-so-small-anymore one. You all may join our merry band of pirates."
"We won't just run away," Katooni says as Hondo boards his ship. "Ahsoka trusted you!"
"I trusted you," I add. Hondo stops in his tracks.
"We all trusted you," Katooni finishes.
Hondo sighs. "Well, come along then. We'll go get them." Katooni and I share a smile as we board his ship. We enter the cockpit and he takes the pilot's seat, flying the ship out of the garage. "So where could they be?"
"Well, we went right while they kept going straight, so they should be near that direction," I tell him.
"Ah, yes, my thoughts exactly," Hondo very obviously lies. I roll my eyes.
"So can you podrace?" Katooni asks me.
I laugh. "No, not really. You see, I grew up on Batuu, and my good pal Hondo here also happened to spend a lot of time there. One day he got so drunk he tried to teach me to podrace on a speeder, and, well, I almost destroyed the entire Black Spire outpost."
"No, it was just one old man's vendor stand," Hondo argues. "I did well, no?"
"You taught me how to stop and go, my only instructions being to 'go fast' and 'win at all costs so I can get my profit'," I say. Katooni giggles.
"I could've made big money if you'd really done it, m'dear, I'm telling you. Oh, what is that! There they are!" Hondo points out the window towards a bunch of blue and green sabers. He starts down towards the ground as Katooni and I run out to retrieve them. We stand on the ramp as it opens, and everyone looks up at us.
"Hurry, come on!" Katooni shouts. The younglings run, leaving Ahsoka alone with Grievous.
"Katooni, watch Hondo and the others. I'm going to help Ahsoka." I hop down through the air to the ground and run up beside Ahsoka as her and Grievous stare each other down.
"Would you look at what the womp rat dragged in," I joke as I approach and ignite my saber beside Ahsoka's two. "You look worse than ever, General."
"Arlo Just," he sneers as he splits his arms, making his two blades become four. "It's been a while." He spins his sabers rapidly as he starts at Ahsoka and I. We flip back and dodge then as we block the sabers with our own. He then tries to jumó at us, but we push him backwards with the Force. He drives his sabers into the ground as he slides back and coughs, then charges again. We swing at him again, and his four sabers form two Xs when we lock our blades together on either side of him. We push, but he's stronger, and he drives our lightsabers down. He grabs Ahsoka's face with one of his claw legs and flips her over his head onto her back, then charges at her, blades spinning. She rolls back and I flip over through his spinning blades in front of her and block his four sabers, forcing me onto the ground almost instantly. But Ahsoka ignites her two sabers once again, and we each take two of his own. We push with all our might and somehow manage to get him off of us. We parry for a few more moments, then look up to see the younglings waiting for us on Hondo's ship. I roll under his legs while Ahsoka flips on his back, and I run over to her as she lands, a safe distance away from Grievous.
"Ahsoka, Arlo, come on!" Katooni yells as Grievous creeps closer and closer to us. We look back at Grievous one last time, then make a sprint for the cliff. We use the Force and jump up in the air onto the ship's ramp and run in with the younglings, closing the door quickly behind us so Grievous, now on the tip of cliff, can't jump after us. We enter the cockpit and watch him out the window.
"You will never defeat Grievous!" he shouts up at us. "Never!"
"I wouldn't be so sure," Hondo retorts as he begins firing at the general. I snicker beside him.
"Did we get him?" Katooni asks excitedly.
"I can't tell," Petro says. Separatist tanks then begin to fire at us.
"Show is over, kiddies," Hondo says as he begins to fly away. "Let's get out of here." We zoom out of the atmosphere just as the Republic fleet arrives, and a cruiser appears. It's not the Negotiator, but I can tell who's on there.
I smile. "That's Obi-Wan!"
"Ah, Kenobi!" Hondo explains. The younglings murmur in excitement at the mention of him.
"Hondo, board that cruiser. He'll know it's us," I say. We land in the cruiser's hangar and I rush out of the cockpit and down the ramp to Obi-Wan, who stands waiting with Cody.
He smiles at my presence. "Must you cause trouble everywhere you go, little one?" he questions as I jog towards him.
"Yeah, kinda," I say as he gives me a side hug.
"Hello, Commander. I'm glad to see you're all right," Cody greets.
"Thank you, Cody. It's good to see you too."
"Kenobi!" Hondo shouts as he practically struts off of his ship and walks towards us. Obi-Wan gives me a 'seriously?' look as I snicker.
"Who is that, sir?" Cody questions.
"Oh, you'll see," I say.
"Kenobi, oh, it's good to see you once again, my friend. Now shall we discuss payment? I don't take credits, of course—"
"Hold on, Hondo," Obi-Wan interjects. "Payment?"
"Oh, yes, I staged their rescue! So, you know, payment for that, and, let me see. Oh, the cost of the fuel. I had to use a lot of fuel. The general wear and tear on my men and equipment. A couple of them... died, I think. Believe me, Kenobi," he says with a sigh, "staging a rescue is not an inexpensive proposition!"
Obi-Wan strokes his beard. "So you mean to tell me you were staging a rescue, not attempting to hijack a Jedi starship?"
"You're welcome!" Hondo exclaims as he holds out his arms. I snicker. "Oh, the thanklessness! What an accusation! I am gone, I will send you my bill! Ta ta, till next time, Arlo!" He waves behind him as he walks back to his ship. Obi-Wan looks back at Cody and I and shakes his head in amusement.
"He's quite the character, isn't he?" I ask Cody.
"Well, he's certainly... a character," Cody replies.
"You didn't get hurt, did you?" Obi-Wan questions as he scans me for injuries.
"No, I'm okay, Master."
"Okay. Well, I'm glad you're all right. I was worried when the younglings commed and said you and Ahsoka were taken."
"I didn't know you told Master Yoda about—"
"I know. I didn't really want to, but I thought it would help, and I'm sorry."
"Well... I think it did help."
"Oh. That's good, then, I'm glad. Come along, now, my Padawan, let's check on the others." I follow behind him as us and Cody walk over to the younglings, Ahsoka, R2, and Huyang. I watch Hondo's ship fly off. "Ahsoka. It's good to see you're all safe."
"Yes, Master," Ahsoka replies. "We had quite an eventful mission."
"The most eventful since the time Master Yoda went to find his lightsaber crystal," Huyang tells us. The younglings exclaim excitedly at his comment.
"Tell us!"
"What happened then?"
"I'm afraid that story will have to wait," Obi-Wan says. "For now, be proud. You have survived an ordeal few your age could." He ignites his saber and holds it straight out in front of him. Ahsoka and I follow, as do the younglings, and our sabers create a beautiful circle with rods of blue, green, and my golden light. "Welcome home, young Jedi."
—
guys you all have no frikin idea how ready i am to write the rest of this season. because even though the episode was the first of season 5, chronologically it goes with the shadow collective arc, which is one of the best in the show, and things are about to go down. and then right after, the wrong jedi arc, and yeah basically this should be exciting i think.
thanks for reading! -a 🪐