The Varactyl Squadron Commander (A Star Wars: The Clone Wars Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The healing hole a few feet away from Molindi and JC's body was a cheap distraction for what the living palace really had in mind for its guests. As all eyes remained focused on the panicked woman, no one seemed to notice a similar gap circling into existence along the edge of the wall just short of their peripheral vision. The fact that the twirling vines were off to the side of the bed and of the same height as the green-covered mattress did nothing to help catch the gazes of the soldiers, leaving them clueless to what was about to happen next.

Axel let out a shocked yell- along with a string of profanities- as a handful of little green strings ripped him from his seat and yanked him across the floor on his stomach, straight for the gaping vortex of flora.

"Axel!" One of the other soldiers shrieked; he didn't know which one, they all sounded the same and he didn't have time to play 'Guess the Clone' at the moment. Not when his current problems had more of a hold on his attention. Literally.

Rex was the first to leap into action and grabbed onto Axel's ankle, with Tyson, Risk, Slides, and Rocket following suit. As the five latched onto his ankles and other hand, Axel couldn't help but mentally kick himself for being so stupid. This is what happens when you finally decide to give in to the idea of...the idea of...what? He couldn't even finish his thought properly; all he knew for sure was that the odds of him coming to Molindi's aid for emotional support ever again were near non-existent. Not if this was what he was going to get in return.

"Go find something sharp!" Rex barked at the remaining men standing at the door. Breaks, Champ, and Dodo didn't waste any time and fled the room at a sprint.

"Hang on, buddy! We've got ya!" Tyson exclaimed who had a firm grip on Axel's free hand. The troopers continued to fight against the strength of the plants but despite their efforts, their feet continued to slide across the fuzzy, almost moss-like carpet, closer and closer to the massive cavity in the wall.

As the struggle continued, the atmosphere of the room began to shift and what felt like a hum began to resound through the small area, as if the suite itself was alive with its stomach growling for its next meal.

"Hurry it up, guys!" Risk yelled to the other three men scouring the suite for something to cut Axel free. "We don't have all day!" The humming continued to grow in volume 'til yelling became the only way anyone could hear their voices. The vines tugged with a sudden burst of strength in an attempt to destabilize the mass of bodies, which half-succeeded by causing Rocket and Slides to slip on the mossy floor and lose their grip on one of Axel's ankles.

"Damn it!" Slides snapped in anger. The hole began to grow in size, taking up most of the wall now and two stumbled to their feet only to realize that their own ankles had been tied in the thick fingers of plants. In an instant, two more of their group were ripped across the floor at an alarming speed, their hands grasping at the carpet for anything to hold on to in hopes of saving themselves from the enormous green abyss.

"No!" Rex released Axel's ankle, leaving Tyson and Risk to rescue their comrade, then jumped for his own men's hands. His gloved hands latched onto Slides's and Rocket's wrists and they dug deep into his own. "Don't let go!"

"Wow, great call, boss! I was just about to do exactly that!" Rocket wasn't afraid to show his sarcastic side. His life was on the line; if he was going to die, he wasn't going to go out quietly. Rex just growled under his breath. He could feel the sweat building beneath his clothes and on his forehead. His arms and legs were aching and his muscles were growing weak, but there was no way he was going to let go. No way in hell.

"Commander!" At first Rex thought the word came from the mouths of either Rocket or Slides, "Commander! Help!" But soon realized that it was Tyson and Risk shouting for the woman across the room, her bloodied hands working the fastest he'd ever seen someone move. She wasn't going to be any help and there were going to be casualties for it, despite the soldiers' determination to save each other. Axel's eyes never left the fraction of a leader sitting with a piece of junk droid in her lap.

I should've never helped her. I should've left her to die and now my brothers and I have to swing for it.

Though his intentions were goodhearted, they weren't enough to stop the final three death-ropes, each the size of his leg, from shooting out and latching onto Rocket, Slides, and Axel's torsos. With one last vicious yank, the soldiers were torn from their brothers' grasps.

"N-now!"

*****

Everything went by in a sluggish slow-motion after that.

One minute, Molindi was a bloody mess with nothing but JC on her broken mind, and the next her eyes fell to the men in danger and everything shot back into place.

The soldiers were in trouble. Flashes of the past sprinted through her mind like angry beasts disguised as screaming cannibal victims, scraping with their claws at the base of her soul. Her men were trouble.

She'd be damned if she lost them again.

Like a well-oiled machine, her fingers slid JC's damaged spinal circuits back into order and the robot jumped to life. Just as the floral-beast gave one last mighty tug at its prey, Molindi tore JC's left arm from its socket, the metal becoming a jagged blade along the edge right when JC was reaching her right arm into her own robotic chest cavity.

With JC's arm bent at an odd angle, Molindi's senses heightened and she felt herself releasing the robotic limb. Like a boomerang, the arm zipped through the air, barely skimming the sole of Axel's boot before tearing through the multiple vines like a weed-whacker before burying itself elbow-deep it the bed's wooden support beams a yard or two away.

Instantly, the humming became a painful screech of agony that rattled throughout the suite and all three floors, a screech that JC felt obligated to shriek back as she held her hand up between herself and the troops and released a fountain of fire from a small device she'd ripped from her chest. Axel couldn't remember moving, but he somehow found himself up against the opposite wall where he and the rest of the clones were huddled together watching the fireworks.

Like tentacles, the remaining vines recoiled and shot back from whence they came, disappearing within the rest of the foliage after the wall returned back to its original flat state. JC turned off the device and placed it securely back into her chest before letting out a long list of obscenities at what used to be a very-alive threat.

"Oh yeah! T-t-take that, creepy wall vines! T-t-take that! You think you c-c-can mess with us?Nice try!"

Molindi walked across the room, her eyes finally back in focus, and ripped the metal limb from the side of the bed.

"JC-"

"Ain't nobody got n-nothin' on Lindi and JC! Oh yeah! In your frickin' face!"

The woman brushed the splinters of wood from the sharp edge of the makeshift weapon and began to approach the over-excited robot.

"JC-"

"There's more of that where that came from! You've b-b-barely opened this can of ass-whoopin'!"

"JC!"

Despite not having any lungs, JC took what sounded like a deep breath before turning around to face her audience and sighed. As if realizing just how obnoxious she had sounded, the droid sheepishly rubbed the back of her metal skull and cleared her throat.

"C-c-can I have my arm back now?"