The Mandalorian Jedi

Chapter Fifteen

It didn't take Norah long to find me and we smiled at each other before turning around, backs to each other as we turned to face the endless hoard of droids marching out into the arena. They were ridiculously easy to cut down, you would think Count Dooku would invest in some strong sturdy droids that didn't collapse at the touch of a lightsaber but apparently the thought hadn't crossed his mind however the droids weren't the only problem, if you could call them much of a problem, the geonosians had all sorts of weapons and they also happened to be hungry for blood, Jedi blood apparently. 

We fought our way through the chaos, I'm not sure where we were going or if we were going anywhere at all but we carried on all the same, trying not to think too hard when we saw the fallen body of a Jedi, I recognized them all and although I couldn't name them all or say that I had ever talked to some of them I still mourned. The galaxy believed Jedi were great warriors who couldn't be killed and I would give a lot to make it true, especially in moments like this. Norah and I paused for a moment and I saw Master Windu and Obi-Wan fighting back to back until a very angry looking reek came charging towards them, pushing Obi-Wan to the side as he began charging towards my master, I made to move forwards but Norah put a hand on my arm, stopping me, "Rhea he will be fine, we need to get moving, these droids aren't going to kill themselves." I shrugged and smiled as we began moving again,
"Oh I don't know they don't exactly seem to be built for battle, you could probably poke one and it would collapse." Norah snorted and we grinned again as we ran straight for a group of droids. It took us less than a minute to cut them all down and we stood there panting for a second and out of the corner of my eye I saw Master Windu beheading the bounty hunter, Jango Fett. None of us knew it at the time but that one action was gonna bring us a whole lot of trouble later on.

We made our way over to where Anakin and Padme were crouched in the shell of an overturned cart, similar to the one that had taken us into the arena in the first place,
"How's it going?" Anakin turned sharply at the sound of my voice and let out a relieved sigh when he saw us,
"Oh you know how it is, aggressive negotiations and all." I smirked and ducked down next to him, winking at Padme and Norah came down as well offering a greeting to the Senator. 
"You guys ready to go back out?" The sheer number of droids were overwhelming the remaining Jedi and it just seemed wrong to stay crouched in the vaguely protective cover of the cart. Everyone nodded and we got on the move again, deflecting bullets as we made our way over to the other Jedi who were now being herded into a tight circle by the ridiculous amount of droids. Obi-Wan was crouched beside the limp body of a Jedi I barely recognized and he gave us a solemn nod as the droids pulled their guns back, letting their leader make his dramatic speech.

"You have fought gallantly Master Windu, perhaps even worthy of recognition in the Jedi Archives. Surrender now and your lives shall be spared." I laughed at that, it was a nice way of putting 'you will be tortured and used as hostages to be bartered for.' Master Windu seemed to think the same and he said it loudly, without hesitation. This ended up with guns being pointed at us again and I sighed, readying my sabers and hoping to the gods that Yoda had managed to reach Kamino with time to spare because if not we would be in a whole lot of trouble that would most likely get us killed but the gods seemed to hear me because almost immediately after I thought it the drone of ships approaching filled the air and we all looked up to see what could only be Clone gunships bearing down on us. They swooped into the arena and all the droids aimed their fire up towards them.

The ships formed a circle around us and we all clambered to get onto them as the clones fought off the droids, buying us time to get out of there. I climbed up with my master and gave Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme a salute for good luck as the ships lifted off the ground, carrying us away from the arena and into what I suppose was the battle that started the Clone Wars.

The clone piloting the gunship set us down and Master Windu, Master Mundi, Master Fisto and I got off and walked over to a group of clones. The gunship took off again with Yoda still inside and I sent a silent plea to the force to keep him safe. A clone with yellow armor was talking to Master Windu who nodded and signalled for me to follow him,
"Keep behind me Rhea, do you understand? You are not to get yourself injured in any way or you will be pulling library duty for a month."
"I'm not sure I have much choice over whether I get injured or not-" The look on his face shut me up, I knew he was only trying to protect me so I just nodded and said, "Yes Master Windu."

I'm not sure I can quite explain what happened, how it all felt. It went by so fast and yet it seemed to go on for hours. Every time a clone trooper fell I had to force myself to carry on, to not look back at his limp body. So many died in that first battle and it wasn't even a fraction of the number who died over the next three years and it broke my heart every time but each time I forced myself to keep moving, to cut down more droids and hope that someone managed to get the one that had killed the trooper.

I guess in a way I zoned out, I pulled myself away from my body and let the reflexes I had spent a decade cultivating take over. I didn't fully come back to myself until the droid army retreated and the fighting stopped, maybe not even until we came back to Coruscant where I met up with Anakin and Obi-Wan. Ani had managed to loose an arm which I probably shouldn't have found as amusing as I did but even he had to admit the robotic one they gave him was pretty cool, I even managed to convince Master Windu to allow me to accompany Anakin as he escorted Padme back to Naboo under the guise that there was a war going on and Anakin hadn't had time to train with his new arm which may make him vulnerable. I'm not sure he believed me but  I was allowed to go and definitely not partake in the wedding of my closest friend and the former Queen of Naboo. Even if we were happy for a few days the underlying truth still haunted us the Clone Wars had begun and no one knew the cost of it or what would come at the end of it all. Only time would tell and in this case I would rather time had stopped altogether.

I am so so sorry that I didn't post last weekend, I had loads going on and just forgot but I hope this was a good chapter and I've spent the week planning what I want to do with Rhea and I have been a little too obsessed with wandavision lately which got me thinking on the multiverse. I personally love Rhea as a character and would love to integrate her into more stories and worlds which I love just as much as Star Wars so I have been thinking on writing several fics with her in different worlds and it will take a long time but I really like the idea and will definitely be working on it so let me know what you guys think. Different versions of Rhea in different realities working with some of my favorite characters and maybe even one day the different versions of her could meet, possibly through whatever will be happening in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Of course you guys don't need to read any of the other fics with her in it but yeah, I've been slightly obsessed with the X Men lately, particularly the stories from Last Stand through to Dark Phoenix so I've been working out a way to put her in there which will hopefully be pretty awesome.

As ever thank you for the support Xx