Ariana's Trials

Part 43

Anakin's POV

I saw why immediately. No wonder Ahsoka had been confused, they looked so similar. Ariana had been laughing her head off, the annoying girl. I'm still curious about what the heck happens in her head because she went from a wreck to a goofball in a matter of minutes. She said something in a weird language, and Kaldur responded. That was also frustrating, that they could just speak normally in a foreign language like it was what they grew up speaking.

"είναι πολύ αστείο να τους βλέπεις να ταράζονται" Ariana said

"Διαφωνώ.Είναι μόνο αστείο να βλέπεις το κοντό καστανά μαλλιά" Kaldur said

"Εννοείς αφέντη μου; είναι αστείο" Ahsoka said

"You can understand that?!" I asked

"Ahsoka spent time and learned" Ariana looked smug. I hated it. She was better than everyone here, and she knew it. Kaldur was content to follow her, as long as she wasn't doing anything spectacularly stupid, which was when he dragged her away from it, scolded her, and restarted the cycle. Rex came in, and he started talking with Kaldur, and I let my thoughts wander to our problem. Two most likely incredibly powerful beings were being held by Grievous, one of the two was pregnant, and they both might be able to use the force. Ariana turned her attention to Rex and Kaldur's conversation

"General sir, permission to know the plan of action?" Rex asked

"We don't quite have one," Obi-Wan said "Multiple things are barring us from our goal" he waved and brought up a diagram of a large building "This droid factory is producing more by the minute. We have to shut it down before we can get anywhere near Grievous, and then there is the problem of Grievous himself, we don't know where he's holding them" Rex looked like he wanted to either sigh or go to sleep

"I'll go tell the other commanders" Rex was going to leave when Ariana pointed to the map

"What's this? It looks like a cave" She asked, then squinted at the dot

Rex looked at the dot "Vassek, why?"

"A quick suspicion of mine" Ariana zoomed out of the map and zoomed in on the moon, where a long unmapped part of the surface "If I was an evil robot man who had two hostages, would I place my base on the moon closest to my source of protection?"

"Red, can you analyze this?" Rex asked, and they continued a small conversation as Ariana sank deeper into thought. Rex eventually made an excuse and left, and Ariana was sinking deeper into her mind as she pondered something. What went on in her head, I wondered about again.

"We'd better start making a plan" Obi-Wan suggested "We can't walk into a Separatist prison without one"

"I agree," Ariana said, and Kaldur looked a little shocked "Running in without a plan is foolish"

Kaldur raised an eyebrow, and Ariana looked at him like she wanted to smack the smug grin off his face.

We dove into the planning, letting the facts present us with the best options. While it looked like Ariana was itching to get into the fight, I could relate- Running in was the worst idea possible. If they've managed to keep two highly powerful adults for this long, they're ready to handle a frontal assault.

It turns out, Kaldur has a talent for predicting random occurrences. He pointed out we have possibly the best distraction because Ariana is impossible to ignore.

"So, I get their frontal force's attention, destroy it all while you guys sneak in, and follow once they run out of troops to throw at me?" Ariana summarized.

"So we have a plan," Obi-Wan said "Once we're inside, We locate Percy first, and then Annabeth"

"If Percy can stand, he'll start looking for her. And if he can't stand, he unconscious, so, you'll have whatever help he can give" Ariana added, and Kaldur gave her a puzzled look 

"You only fought beside him a few times. How do you know?" He asked

"Because we're twins, Kaldur" She rolled her eyes "I'm the same. If I can stand, I'll fight"

Whatever traces of my first impression of her were gone. While battle planning, she went from her normal self to who she was beneath her bubbly personality. A seasoned veteran, who doesn't flinch when faced with death. I wondered how much of it she's seen, or how many have lost their lives at her hands. 

"We'd better get on with it. The sooner this is done, the better." She said, and I watched her clench her fist. 

"Agreed" I nodded

"Let us prepare to land, then," Obi-Wan said, and we all went our separate ways.

Ariana bid us goodbye as she descended to the moon's surface, her blade glimmering in the light. She was positively terrifying as she stood there and pointed her sword at the doors. I watched her, and the first shots that were fired, until we were too far away to see. We were bound for another entrance. I heard Ariana cackle, and the scream of her blade against the metal of the droids. I shot a glance at Kaldur, who was grimacing

"I don't know whether to be happy that the droids are getting destroyed or pity them because they're alone with Ariana" I laughed, and Kaldur shrugged. We touched down a few minutes later, and Kaldur jumped off the ship before we even touched the ground. He rolled his shoulders and pulled his blade, and I turned, looking for Rex. He was nowhere in sight, and I wondered where he was before a loud explosion shook the ground

Kaldur had thrown a rock at the ground in front of the doors and set off three land mines. Despite being near the mines, Kaldur was unfazed, and he selected another rock and threw it, letting it clatter onto the pockmarked ground

"We're good," he said, then moved to the door, scanning the wall for any flaw. He picked a piece of the decorated carvings and plunged his sword into it, inducing a wail from the metal.

"Why don't you just use the door?" I asked. "We just have to find it" He pulled the blade through the metal with ease

"It's right here" He scoffed, and kicked it, letting the door swing inward, revealing the dark halls. Kaldur stepped in and vanished into the shadows.

"Showoff" I mumbled under my breath.

Kaldur ran off into the maze of hallways, and he quickly vanished. With a quick stop to check my options, I chose to head left. I don't know what kind of internal compass Kaldur had, but he ran into us soon after we had gone left.

"This place is eternally frustrating" He grumbled, then turned to go another way "I hate mazes."

"I get that. But Grievous doesn't make anything remotely easy" I added

"Mmm. All the more satisfying to defeat" Kaldur mumbled, then dashed off into the dark.