Survival: A Star Wars The Clone Wars Story

Chapter 17

Obi-Wan was frozen to the spot as he watched Luminara miss the bridge and plummet straight into the depths of the cavern. It was unreal. In what universe could a Jedi, as skilled and practiced as she was, miss that jump? But she had, Grievous had thrown her off course, and if he didn't do something about it in the next second, he would have failed another one of his friends.

Gritting his teeth, he threw himself at Grievous taking the force of all four lightsabers with his own. In the same instant, he thrust out his other arm and reached out desperately into the force. With the entire weight of that metallic monster bearing down on him, Obi-Wan was sure that he would be squashed into the ground, but he did not break his focus, for even a millisecond, on hauling Luminara back up out of the cavern and onto the bridge.

~*~*~*~*~*~

So, this is how it ends. The thoughts flashed through Luminara's mind as the bridge grew smaller and smaller above her. How deep this cavern went, she did not know, but she would find out very soon. She felt no anger, no regret, but there was still a twinge of disappointment in herself, for getting Barriss and everyone else into this mess. There was so much more she could have done, but it was too late now.

As sudden as being run over by a hover train, everything stopped. The meagre contents of her aching stomach nearly forced their way back up her throat. She hadn't hit anything, and yet she was no longer falling. How is this possible? Realisation hit her as she turned her gaze upwards. It was such an unusual sight, like falling but in reverse, as she watched the bridge zoom back into view. Obi-Wan! He was pulling her back up and still fighting Grievous. Tears of relief stung in her eyes as she defied gravity, floating higher and higher, her robes billowing around her. She would still have a chance to make it out alive, she would still have a chance to apologise properly to Barriss. It was not until her hands gripped the solid metal of the underside of the bridge that her wits truly returned to her.

Summoning her remaining strength, she swung herself along the edge of the bridge, ignoring the screams of lightsabers from above and the cavern that had nearly swallowed her below. Even though Obi-Wan had saved her, they would still need to fight their way out of this together.

Once she was sure she was near enough to the exit-side of the bridge, Luminara sucked in a deep breath and hurled herself up onto the bridge.

Luminara had realised that Obi-Wan must have been fighting off Grievous on his own in this moment, but still the sight shocked her. His single blue blade was taking the weight of all four of Grievous' stolen sabers. The searing white of the clashing lightsabers was almost blinding.

Grievous flinched at the sight of her, the Jedi master that he had sent diving down into the cavern only moments before. It was only a slight hesitation, but enough for Obi-Wan to force him back with one swift motion. Another flick of his lightsaber, and Obi-Wan had severed one of Grievous' wrists. Luminara watched in silent horror as her treasured green lightsaber fell to the fate that had almost claimed her life mere minutes ago. Better her lightsaber than herself.

The droid general let out a choked howl of rage as Obi-Wan's rapid darting and dodging resulted in another limb sliced clean through. Obi-Wan spared a glance back at Luminara and for a split second she saw her own relief reflected back at her.

Then she knew what they had to do.

With their combined strength, they pushed Grievous back, sending him hurtling back in the direction of the lab. Scuttling away like an injured animal, the glorified droid vanished back into the room, presumably to one of his various escape routes, defeated – for the time being. Somehow Grievous always evaded them at the last moment, but that didn't really bother Luminara as Obi-Wan gently turned them towards the opposite end of the bridge.

"Thank you." She whispered the words that burned in her throat as they ran up and out of the depths of the Citadel

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ahsoka was falling – well, not literally – but it sure felt like it. It was all she could do to keep forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other. Echo. All this time he had been alive. All this time the droids had held him captive. This was their fault, and yet what more could they have done? How could they have known he was still alive?

She clenched her hands to stop them from trembling as she spoke.

"We can't tell Rex." The words formed in her mouth before she quite knew that she was saying them.

"I don't know how we can not tell Rex." Kai said. What little Ahsoka had seen of his light demeanour had vanished, like it had been sucked away by a vacuum.

"I know, but he's better off thinking Echo-" She broke off. It was too much to hear it spoken aloud. "He's better off thinking he died in the explosion, than that he was gassed to death in the power generator."

Through his trooper helmet, Ahsoka was sure that Boxer was giving them a look.

"I guess you are right." Muttered Kai. He hurried along and Ahsoka took that as the end of the conversation. Boxer remained silent. The only sound was their feet echoing off the endless darkened corridors.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Here she was, running through the Citadel for the third or fourth time now, she did not know. All for what? If they escaped it would be a few moments rest, a clap on the back and then straight back to the front, to some other unfortunate planet caught in the crossfire. When would the Jedi see that they were being used by the Republic? Maybe the council just didn't care anymore. Maybe this was her life now.

Yes, her life was here and now. Focus, Barriss, focus. Just a few more flights of stairs and they would see daylight, or as near as Lola Sayu got to daylight. She had just about had enough of the dingy glow of the red emergency lights.

She glanced across at Ahsoka who kept pace, but Barriss could sense her heart wasn't in it. Her eyes were cast down at the floor, her movements merely muscle memory. Barriss knew Ahsoka always felt a deeper connection with the clones than she did. She had been thrown into this war at a young age too.

On all the missions they had been on together, Barriss had watched Ahsoka and Master Skywalker together. They always seemed so at ease, almost as if they didn't care. The clones were their brothers, and fighting battles was just what they did together. It had always seemed odd to Barriss. She could never feel at ease in this time of war. The horrific experience of Geonosis had only heightened that sense of unease. This could never be normal for her. She didn't see how it could be normal for anyone.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Nice work, Rex!" Anakin said into his commlink as he watched his clone captain's laser fire collide with the last of the vulture droids, blowing it into a state beyond even scrap metal. "If Artoo has prepped the engines, we'll be off this dust ball in no time."

"Thanks, General. Let's hope we don't have to come back a third time."

I couldn't agree more. Thought Anakin as he climbed back down to the cockpit, where they had left R2-D2 hacking into the ships systems. Nothing good ever came of planets covered in sand and dust in his opinion.

R2 let out a series of cheery chirps and whistles as Anakin dropped to the floor and flung himself into the pilots chair. He rapidly punched in possible ignition sequences, but the ship only responded with blaring red screens and droning alarms. Something was preventing the landing gear from retracting, no doubt the Separatists had them all clamped down.

"There's probably still a magno-lock on the outside." Came Rex's voice from behind him. Rex was always so quick in these situations, that was one of the reasons Anakin was so glad to have him as his captain.

"I'll deal with it." He called, already leaping out of the pilot's chair. "Make sure to get the engines are nice and warmed up. We won't have a moment to lose when the other's get back." He had no doubt that they would return, such was his confidence in his master and padawan. After all, it was all in a day's work, right?