Chapter Text
You sat with your back against the wall of the metal cell, coldness seeping in through the thin cloth wrapped around your body. To your disdain, your traditional robes had been swapped out with prison rags. The itchy fabric scratched against the wounds that roughened your skin, some of which were still stingingly fresh whilst others were old, scabbing over unevenly. A chill ran down your spine and you rubbed your hands together, hissing a curse against the cold beneath your breath.
CLANK. CLANK. CLANK. CLANK.
Your eyes followed the battle droids that march past your cell door, noting that they were still following the same route as always.
Nothing new then.
A moment later, your gaze drifted away, staring unseeingly at rusting panel in your cell whilst you thought over the events of the last few weeks with a frown.
The most you remembered Master Uveq forcing you into a chamber, before there was a hissing and you were bathed in an ice-cold gas.
When you had awoken from your carbonite slumber, you weren’t expecting to be staring into the dark eyes of a Sith Lord.
You grimaced at what had followed, but you banished the memories away with a shake of your head and brought yourself back to the present.
Almost a month had passed since you had unfrozen, after somehow having landed on this ship. And beneath the cold and the pulsing pain, you were itching with a desire to get off this hunk of metal and misery. Thankfully, something in the universe seem to have aligned, as you could sense an opportunity for an escape arising quickly.
You watched as an unusually lonesome droid walked by your cell door.
“Hey, droid,” You called out quickly. The yellow patrol droid looked once at you, then around in question. “Yeah, I’m talking you!”
The droid’s metallic drone cut through the quiet, “What do you want, prisoner?”
You contemplated your next words for a moment. Suddenly, your face crinkled with distraught, and you cried out, “I really need to pee.”
“Errr…” The droid froze, taking a moment to process your words.
“Like, really badly!!”
“Alright, alright,” It burst out, putting its hands up defensively as if it was embarrassed. “But don’t try anything funny!”
“Look at me,” you shrugged, gesturing at the shackles that bound your arms together. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“Hmm… okay,” The drone hummed, satisfied that you were completely harmless. It shuffled over to the control panel of your cell. A moment later, the glowing cell door dissipated and the barrel of the droid’s blaster was trained on you cautiously. “Err, right this way, prisoner.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll find my way around.”
Your leg swung out and made contact with the droid. With a clang, the droid dropped to the ground, and you ripped the blaster from its hands. With one quick motion, you brought the blaster down on its head and sent crackling electric sparks flying. Stepping away from the limp pile of scrap metal, you burst into a sprint down the corridors.
Within moments, the sterile white lights lining the halls switched to a sinister crimson. Sirens screeched, sending a piercing warning into the air and as you turned the corner a group of droids spun around on you, their weapons trained.
“Quick! Shoot the prisoner!”
With another curse uttered beneath your breath, you rolled away, dodging the wall of bright red blaster bullets aimed in your direction, including the one that narrowly missed your head. You took off again down another corridor, before sliding into an empty communication room.
Think, idiot, think!
You barely had a moment to breathe when the sound of metallic footsteps and blasters caught up with you. With deft fingers, you traced the buttons along the control pad, starting to input a code you hoped would buy you some more time. The lights above you flickered for a moment, confirming your hopes.
A brief moment of relief swept through you.
Suddenly a bullet wizzed by your ear, the heat of it searing a few hairs along your cheek. Stumbling back, you met eyes with the unfeeling eyes of a droid.
Raising you weapon, you blasted a hole in its chest. Turning your blaster on the control station, you abandoned your commands and emptied your ammunition into the computer, destroying it. The infographic screen fizzled out, its wires fried, and your drove the butt of your stolen blaster in for good measure. Great columns of black smog began to rise from the pits of damage, and embers erupted from the electrics.
With a final glance back at the smoking control room, you were once again taking off down the halls of your prison, the rest of the battle droids hot on your trail.
It wasn’t long before the fatigue began to catch up though, legs aching and lungs heaving from the strain. The nasty gashes up and down your body began radiating with agony, and blood began staining your rags with blotches of red. You couldn’t stop now, however, and the adrenaline coursing through your veins refused to let you falter.
The sound of battle droids closed in on all sides served as a reminder as you found yourself having to blink sweat from your eyes. You rounded the corner, only to come face to face with the dark man who had so rudely woken you up from your thousand-year power nap.
“Ah,” you sighed, coming to a blunt stop. The man before you glowered with power, the grey hairs of ageing doing nothing to quell the sinister darkness that permeated through the air like a plague. The beard on his long face was well-kept, and behind his eyes you could see a plunging hatred as his gaze pierced through you.
“Count Dooku. I thought we might run into each other,” Your eyes hardened, refusing to back down from his intense stare. “Though I must be honest, I thought it would’ve happened sooner.”
“Going somewhere, Jedi?”
“That depends,” you grimaced. “Are you gonna give me a hard time?”
Instead of an answer there was a sudden loud humming, the crackling blade glowing an ominous red.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” You shook your head with disapproval. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time for this.”
You took a moment to gather yourself, thinking over your, quite frankly, suicidal plan. With a steady breath in, you hardened your resolve.
Eh, its worth a shot.
Rushing forward, you charged straight at Count Dooku. Before he could react, you leapt to the side, using your momentum to jump and push off the wall beside the Sith. Dooku briefly stumbled back in surprise before quickly recovering and slashing that deadly blade at you. You raised your arms defensively, almost certain the lightsaber would tear through your skin.
There was a sharp crackle and hissing, before your mangled shackles clattered to the floor in a smoking molten mess. Almost immediately, and as if a switch had been flipped, beautiful energy seeped back into your body, flowing through your heart and pulsating into your itching fingertips.
Silence stretched across between the two of you, as your eyes briefly locked with the Sith. Then the realisation sank in.
Before the other could move, you shoved your arms out, forcing Dooku to stagger backwards unceremoniously. When he looked back up, you were already turning the corner down the hall.
“STOP HER!”
Blaster fire filled the electrified hallways, heating the air around you. You barely dodged the barrage when your reach a large, heavy door and you slammed your fist against the control panel.
The doors parted to reveal an aircraft hangar housing a lone fighter ship. Behind it was nothing but the stretching inky blanket of space, embedded with thousand of stars. You sprinted forwards, desperately closing the distance between you and your vessel of escape. You could hear the humming of a lightsaber dangerously nearby, and the rhythmic marching of battle droids was rapidly closing in.
You darted forward, propelling your legs with energy that was long spent. You narrowed the gap between you and the separatist ship, and you reached out desperately. Then an invisible hand yanked you backwards, forcing you to stumble and your head smashed against the hard floor with a crack. Gritting you teeth, you bit down the pain and flung your arms out, forcing the crates around you to fly backwards.
You staggered to your feet and bolted for the ship’s opening.
The lightsaber hummed dangerously as it sliced through your weak attack. You didn’t care. You just needed to get onto that ship.
You lunch yourself up the boarding ramp, pushing into the cockpit. Bullets ricocheted off the hull as you frantically pressed buttons.
Come on, come on, COME ON!
After a baited moment, the engine roared to life.
The ship jerked before thrusting forward at your command. It spiralled out of the hanger, and out into the open void of space. Cannons tracked your ship, sending out blasts that threatened obliterate you and your ship within a second.
Your hands frantically shuffled over the switches and controls, typing in coordinates you could only hope to still be accurate.
But as you were about jump, a cannon clipped the right wing of your ship.
The explosion sent you spiralling, throwing you off course helplessly as your ship jumped to hyperspace.
Count Dooku stalked his way back to the command centre, anger flaring off him in invisible waves. The phantom hum of his extinguished lightsaber followed him hauntingly, mocking him for his foolish mistakes.
The doors ahead of him parted quickly, as if even the ship was frightened by its master’s rage. The drone commander turned to him, blissfully unaware of the Sith Lord’s dark mood.
“Track down that fighter ship.” Dooku snarled as he stepped into the room. A silence hung over the command room as the droids looked between themselves, almost nervously.
“Uhh, Sir,” The commander droid began, staring back down at the endless panels and displays around him. On one screen it displayed the blueprint of the ship, a single yellow blinking dot flashing somewhere on the hull. “The prisoner jammed all external tracking and navigational systems on the ship. There is no way of tracking her.”
The quiet grinding of teeth filled the room, and every droid had the right mind to take a small step back.
“Get those systems back on and find that fighter.”
“Err… we are unable to,” the commander chattered, looking down at its data pad. “The prisoner destroyed the communication centre and without it we can’t-”
Suddenly the droid was lifted into the air, cut off mid sentence. It release a terrible metallic screech as its electronics were crushed under the force of the Sith’s anger. His malice-filled eyes narrowed, and the dangerous aura surrounding the force user seemed to double in size.
The remains of the commander dropped to the floor with a loud clang. Dooku turned away, stalking out of the command centre and towards his chambers as the image of you fuelled his fury.
Your eyes snapped open as the ship lurched out of hyperspace. Red lights swarmed like fireflies in your spinning vision, and the ringing in your ears gave way to the blaring sirens.
Your ship was hurtling uncontrollably towards a large planet, its milky blue and orange surface blurring as the cockpit spun around in circles. In the chaos, you failed to notice the giant star ships that hovered over you and your ship.
With frantic fingers, the clip that pinned you to your seat came undone and you were flung forward from the momentum. Your hands gripped the control panel for some stability, as your eyes scanned over the endless sea of colourful displays and buttons.
Taking a deep breath, you swallowed your emotions and flicked the blinking red switch that stuck out to you. Then a calm voice permeated the chaos,
“Distress beacon activated.”
Then you were thrown aside, your body slamming against the wall as the fighter ship gave a shuddering jolt. Your face bounced off the heavy metal and you could taste the metallic blood against your teeth. Your ship was breaking through the atmosphere, and the scorching flames on your right wing double as your ship threatened to tear apart and burn under the immense strain.
You scrambled through the chests in the sleeping chambers, looking for anything of use. You fingers wrapped around fabric, dragging out a black jump suit which you quickly swapped out of rags into. You continued your hurried savaging whilst remaining well-aware of the little time you had left before your ship fatally smashed into the planet’s surface. You pulled out a small blaster pistol, which you clipped to your belt.
You flinched in surprise when another voice filled the air.
“WARNING. RAPIDLY APPROACHING GROUND. PLEASE SLOW DOWN.”
You rushed back into the cockpit, your eyes widening as the planet’s surface was much closer than you were expecting. Without wasting another moment, you slid back into your seat and clipped the safety straps around your torso, summoning what little energy you had left. Lifting your hands, you willed the ship around you to slow down, tilting the ship upwards inch by inch and forcing it out of its fatal nosedive. You knew you couldn’t force it to fly, but you needed to do something.
Your eyes closed tightly against the upcoming impact. A moment later, the sound of glass shattering and screeching metal pierced your ears, and you were thrown into the darkness of unconsciousness.