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

Chapter Forty-Six

She was crazy.

Those were the only words he could think of when Rex and the other men witnessed the woman jump down from the speeder and begin to approach the sith.

"Molindi," Rex called to her in what he could almost call fear. "You don't know what you're up against." He could feel his heartbeat stalling in his chest with each step the women took towards each other but he knew it was too late; she was already less than ten feet away from Ventress.

"He's right, you know," The bald lady smirked and the two stopped where they stood, Ventress dropping into a battle stance, lightsabers at the ready, and Molindi following suit, aiming her blaster.

"You hurt my friend," Molindi stated after glancing over to Axel's body, which was beginning to slowly stir. "I don't take things like that lightly. Now I'm going to kick your ugly, bald ass." Ventress laughed.

"Killing you is going to be the most fun I've had in ages."

"Wait, do you see that?" Molindi asked and glanced around the platform with a confused expression, honestly almost catching Ventress completely off guard. "Do you see all the shits I give? Neither do I."

The sith snarled and swung her blades with a vicious battle cry.

***

Anakin hadn't felt a true struggle against a creature since fighting the Zillo beast on Coruscant months prior. With scales impenetrable to lightsabers, taking down that creature took the effort of entire squadrons of clones and a special gas toxic to the giant monster to finally eliminate the threat. Granted, this gorog didn't have lightsaber-resistant skin, but what it lacked in protection it made up for with speed and precision. The Zillo beast had been slow and lumbering, taking multiple seconds for a single movement of its limbs, while the gorog seemed unaffected by its size.

Even with the monstrosity being paralyzed from the waist-down, it put up a decent fight when it came to knocking Anakin out of the way with its hands and grabbing at the Jedi's body when he tried to climb its back and torso. With bursts of energy from the Force, Anakin barely managed to avoid being crushed by its gargantuan fists. How Commanders Rex and Rino survived the encounter was beyond him.

The fragments of a successful plan fell together only when the gorog had gotten a grip on the Jedi and was lifting him up to his maw. As the beast released the general from its grasp and he began to descend through the air, Anakin grabbed hold of its left tusk with his free hand before he could be crushed in its teeth. With the grace only a Jedi could possess, he swung with the momentum of his fall and swerved his body toward the back of its skull.

The gorog shrieked in agony as Anakin plunged his lightsaber blade deep into the base of its cranium and wretched his weapon to the side, slicing its spinal cord and killing the monster instantly.

With an impact that shook the entire stadium to its core, the enormous beast collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap that sent waves of sand and dust in all directions. Anakin coughed and shook the grains of sand that had gathered in his hair and clothes out.

"Sand. I hate sand." He muttered to himself, thinking of the multiple showers he'd have to take when they got back to Kamino to truly rid himself of the disgusting stuff.

As the audience was being evacuated from the premises and the less adept guards concentrated on keeping the general public away from danger, Anakin could see the more decorated warriors of Twar making their way towards the royalty platform where the sound of angry shouts and lightsabers deflecting plasma bolts were prominent.

"Oh no," The general said out loud as a guess of who had crashed the party zipped into his mind. From the feminine screams he'd heard countless times over in battle, it wasn't hard to figure out who it was.

Concentrating purely on the Force, Anakin shot himself straight up into the air and bounded for the newest area of action.

***
To the surprise of the men present, Molindi was doing a decent job of holding her own against the hairless harpy.

At a speed her squadron members had seen when she'd faced off against the CCDs, dodging Ventress's swings and swipes was almost child's play in the eyes of the clones. Molindi made physical hand-to-hand combat look like an art form when she became up close and personal with the sith.

With only inches of distance between Commander Rino's body and the sith, it appeared to be impossible for the blades to make contact with her flesh and Rex was beginning to believe that maybe Molindi would win this fight after all.

But then Ventress got in one lucky hit, and that was all she needed.

Molindi cried out as the hot red tip of Ventress's lightsaber nicked the side of her neck where her foe had been aiming for a fatal blow. The commander stumbled backwards and Ventress swung for her legs, only managing to go about an inch into the flesh of Molindi's thigh, bringing the soldier to her knees.

Rex's eyes went wide.

"Get them out of here," He turned to Risk and the other clones. "Leave without us if you have to. Make sure those plans get off the planet as soon as possible." Before they could reply, Rex jumped down from the speeder as well and aimed for Ventress's head as the sith lifted her blades for one final swipe that would remove Molindi's head from her shoulders.

"Ahh!" The sith shrieked in anger as she turned to deflect the blaster bolts and Molindi took that moment of distraction to shoot her as well. The only difference from Rex being her target.

Ventress gasped as the lightsaber in her left hand was blasted from her grip. The weapon slid across the ground before falling off the edge of the platform, careening down to the arena floor below. With a newfound rage, the woman lunged for Molindi once more before shouting in pain as another bolt shot her remaining lightsaber from her right hand.

Just as Rex and Molindi thought they'd gained an advantage, their bodies were knocked to the ground with an impact so hard it sent their own weapons flying to opposite ends of the area and their forms were lifted from the ground. They gasped for oxygen with wide eyes and clawed at their throats in hopes of some release.

"And now," Ventress growled, her nose scrunched in distaste and hatred as she glared at the two in her clutches. "You di-"

The sith was knocked off her feet by ring of energy from a blaster and the two commanders fell down to the ground as well. Air flooded back into their lungs like water in a dried riverbed and Molindi nodded to Rex in thanks for his aid. Despite all the trash talk at the beginning of this encounter, she knew he had saved her life for the second time that day and that if he hadn't helped, her head would've been detached from her spine, off in the corner or off in the stands. He sent her a small smile back and glanced over at where the shot had come from.

Axel, propped up on one knee, blaster aimed and a stern expression on his face, got to his feet and weakly hobbled over to the two, stepping over Ventress's unconscious body.

"Nice shooting," Commander Rino grinned at him. "I'm glad you're still with us." She nudged his shoulder with her own and he couldn't fight the smile that graced his face at the interaction.

"So am I." He replied. Axel could recall the words she'd said to Ventress, not just the trash talk but how she'd called him her friend. Not her soldier or squad mate. Her friend.

And at that moment, he considered her the same.
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Quick edit: Sorry if there are any typos or weird words that make no sense, I wrote this on my phone since I'm at an Easter thing with my extended family. I was wanting to write more but I didn't have time and a limited WiFi connection. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!