Promise - Anakin Skywalker

.13

"Stay close to me," Anakin lowly advised Ella under his hooded cloak, "if you can keep up."

They now flew through the bright pink atmosphere of Teth, on their way to a guarded monastery that hopefully held Jabba's son. No one had any idea what they were getting themselves into. So far, the flight had been smooth. But, they were just now nearing close to their destination.

Ella looked up from under her cloak. "That won't be a problem, Master." She replied in the same competitive tone.

"This isn't private practice with Master Yoda, Ella," Anakin reminded her sternly.

"I know," she said sharply.

Before Anakin could scold her even further, the ship suffered a hit to the side. "They've spotted us!" Their pilot growled loudly. "I'm putting the armor on!"

The narrow windows slammed shut, leaving all of them in the dark. An alarm started to beep loudly. Ella nervously tightened her grip on the handle she held as they ship began to violently shake.

A red light flickered on, queuing all of the troopers to cock their guns. Ella's heart began to race, she wondered if Anakin felt the same way. She couldn't feel any distress from him, but she had already begun to hide her feelings. He probably did the same.

"Welcome to paradise, rock jumpers!" She heard someone grunt from the cockpit. The ship began to slow down. Their vertical landing tickled her stomach. She inhaled sharply as the ship began to plummet toward the ground at an even faster rate.

The ship slowed abruptly and screeched a few meters across the ground. Everything was still for a few seconds as everyone took a breath. Then, the light flashed green and the boarding ramp hummed open.

"Green light! Go! Go! Go!" Captain Rex called as they started to sprint out into battle. Red beams already flew through the air. Ella ducked under them as well as dodged the running troopers, trying her best to stay out of the way.

Now, it was only her and Anakin left in the ship. He flashed a small smile at her, his eyes slightly twinkling. His eyes were still on her as he ignited his lightsaber and sprinted out into the battle.

Following him, Ella ignited her double lightsabers. She ran out into the battle but stopped abruptly, admiring the planet. A thick pink fog surrounded everything making the visibility low. She couldn't see anyone or anything, but the sound of the battle was deafening.

Ella threw her body weight to one side, almost falling as she dodged a series of red beams that shot out of nowhere. Still breathing heavily from the situation, Ella woozily meandered around the forest trying to find cover. She was terrified in the moment.

Her body smacked against a tree. Ella groaned in pain but kept herself together as she climbed up its branches. The screams of her comrades grew louder.

When she got above the thick fog, she could finally see where the fight was coming from. On top of a steep, tall mountain of rock was the monastery where another army of droids shot at them. Because of the fog, everyone else was blindly fighting.

Ella took a deep breath of the fresh air and closed her eyes. She opened her senses, her mind to the Force as well as the bank of fog. Calming herself down, she moved the Force behind them, hoping the fog would go along with it.

"Look, General! The droids are up there!" Ella heard a clone call out excitedly. She smiled knowing her plan was working.

"The fog is clearing out!" Another person shouted.

She held her inhale for just a moment, taking the time to get a mental grip on the fog through the Force. Then, her eyes swung open just as the fog swirled away behind her at a high speed. A smile formed on her face as she felt the fog blow passed her face, until she felt it no more.

Ella then hopped off the tree, using the Force to slow her fall, and sprinted to catch up with everyone at the bottom of the mountain. They took refuge in a dip in the rock. She squeezed her way passed everyone and found Anakin.

"Nice job, El," Anakin said. He didn't look at her, he was busy peering over the riff in the rock. Immediately, at the sound of the nickname Ella's stomach dropped and her body went numb. No one had called her that name in years.

"El?" She asked, her eyebrows raised.

Still focusing on other things, Anakin nodded. "El," he repeated. Then he finally smiled at her. "I'll race ya to the top!"

"Your mistake!" Ella smirked. She slid out from under the crevice and back into the line of fire. After extinguishing one of her lightsabers, Ella jumped as hard as she could and gripped onto a vine that hung down the mountain with her free hand. In the other, she deflected every red beam she couldn't dodge.

As they climbed up the almost straight up slope, the amount of droids that fell from the cliff increased greatly. Whenever one came her way Ella slashed it in half so she didn't waste her remaining energy dodging them.

She was so tired that she coudn't take any more of lugging herself up the vine, so as soon as droids started to fly towards her on speeders she immediately used her legs to push herself off the rock. Ella swung through the air, kicked a droid off its speeder, and took its place.

"Oh shit!" She laughed out loud, as she gained control of the wild speeder.

"Oh no you don't!" Anakin called out. He did the same and swung off his vine, grabbing the foot platform of Ella's speeder. It tilted to one side because of his weight so she had to lean with all her might on the opposite side.

"Cheater!" Ella giggled as the speeder became even more imbalanced as he swung his feet back and forth. "Stop it!" she squealed.

"Okay!" Anakin let go of the speeder, falling out of Ella's view as she sped toward the top.

"Anakin!" She shrieked, slowing down to look below her. There was no sight of him.

Suddenly, with a heavy blow of wind Anakin came racing passed Ella on a speeder of his own. "Hey!" She gasped, regaining back her speed. When she caught up with him she flew right beside him, just close enough so she could punch him in the shoulder.

"Watch it, El," Anakin teased as they both jumped off their speeders, front tucking over the line of droids on the edge and landing on their feet. They smirked at each other, making brief eye contact, and then slashed every single droid on the monastery's platform. Captain Rex and his troops climbed ever the edge soon after.

Ella could sense a greater power here, one that did not belong to either of them. "There's too many droids here to be renegades. I sense Count Dooku's dealings. Let's find Jabba's son and get out of here."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Ella muttered, hoping her feeling was wrong.