Chapter 33: Battle for Geonosis Pt. 2

“… You’re right, of course. Pilot! We’re changing course! That way!” The Clone piloting their gunship immediately follows orders, steering the ship back around in a new direction. Specifically, in the direction that Tylo can feel his lightsaber, even now. Admittedly, he’d been somewhat aware of it since arriving on Geonosis, but he hadn’t exactly been intending on prioritizing it over things like making sure Aayla, Annie, and Senator Amidala were all okay. Oh, and Master Kenobi, but he could take care of himself… Regardless, Master Secura was right. This former Jedi Master Count Dooku was almost certainly in league with the Sith. This whole situation was something of a trap. They had to be careful, but most importantly of all, they had to put themselves where they were best served to affect the outcome of not just THIS battle, but all the battles that were likely to come. Janga Fett was a lynchpin, and Tylo felt embarrassed for not realizing that sooner. He supposed there was a reason Aayla was the Master and he was still the Padawan Learner. Regardless, under his guidance, their LAAT soon arrives at an out of the way hangar off to the side of the original arena that they’d found the Jedi strike force fighting within. Landing outside behind an outcropping, Tylo hesitates when he sees Bo-Katan checking her weapons in preparation for going with them. Aayla notices this as well, and gives him a pointed look, clearly not too enthused about bringing a Mandalorian with them to apprehend another Mandalorian. He can’t honestly be serious about this one. She’s a mercenary, but even bounty hunters have loyalty… Aayla might be right, but thanks to his gift, he can hear Bo-Katan’s inner thoughts as well, and they don’t quite scream that she’s about to betray them, even if they are somewhat conflicted. Damn it, Fett. Not sure what you got yourself into. Hope you and the kid are already gone. But if not… I’ll do my best to ensure they take you alive. Not gonna let you screw up a good thing I might have going here though… Somehow, he’d managed to secure Bo-Katan’s loyalty in a startlingly short amount of time. Were the dickings he’d given her really that good? He supposed they must be. They’d allowed him to fuck Jedi Masters silly more than a few times, and Bo-Katan, as badass as she was, was not a Jedi Master. She really didn’t have any sort of defense against the Force-Enhanced fucking he’d been delivering to her. Regardless, when both Bo-Katan and Aayla look at him expectantly, Tylo makes the call, and can only hope it’s the right one. “Troopers, stay here and guard the entrance. Kryze, you’re with Knight Secura and I.” It’s a telling sign of his and Aayla’s relationship that he can even get away with that. Still, Bo-Katan doesn’t seem inclined to question it, merely straightening up and giving a nod from beneath her beskar helm. Aayla, meanwhile, purses her lips together before minutely inclining her own head in acknowledgment of Tylo’s decision. I hope he knows what he’s doing… Tylo can’t help a small rueful smile at his Master’s thoughts, even as he hides it by turning away from them and hopping out of the LAAT, making his way towards the hangar’s side entrance. With Aayla and Bo-Katan right on his heels, they enter the hangar just in time to see Janga Fett’s ship starting to turn on and power up. They’re just in time from the look of things, and with the ramp still down, the three of them don’t hesitate. Now is when Bo-Katan would be most likely to betray them, he figures. Push them off the ramp, hold them at bay until the ship can get in the air, and then she and the Fetts will be scot-free. Tylo is tensed up and ready for it, and almost surprised when it doesn’t happen. Instead, they all stampede aboard the ship, making their way deeper in. As they do so, Tylo can hear frantic shouting. “Mom! We’ve got company! I’m going for the holdouts!” “Hold, Boba! Come here, now!” “What?! Buir!” “Jii, Boba!” They come upon the two Fetts a moment later, Tylo and Aayla holding their sabers aloft and Bo-Katan with her blasters in hand. Tylo is expecting resistance, as even though he can’t quite make out their thoughts until this moment, he can feel panic, fear, and pain in equal measures. However, it’s clear that the panic and fear… that was all the young one who got the drop on him back in Kamino. The pain, meanwhile, was Janga Fett. The bounty hunter has very clearly seen better days, and she’s covered in sweat as she stares their trio down in relative silence. Her arms are wrapped around Boba, where she’s propped up against the bulkhead, cradling her unmodified clone to her chest. Her hands however… her hands are gone, missing. Both of her arms end at the wrist now, very clearly cauterized by a lightsaber. Master Windu’s lightsaber, going off of what Aayla told him. Tylo could easily imagine that the dark-skinned Jedi Master had every reason for what he’d done. Based on how Janga had fought on Kamino, Master Windu was no doubt facing down those customized twin blasters of hers and dealt with the threat at its source. Seeing as it could very well have been her head he’d removed instead, leaving it at just her hands was almost kind of him, in a way. But at the same time, it really, really wasn’t… She clearly wasn’t doing well, and yet, beneath the sweat, beneath that partial widening of her eyes, she was… she was still surprisingly clear-headed. Focused, even. “Jetii. Kryze.” No choice. No other option. I’m sorry Boba. So sorry. Wait, what? Tylo straightens up, even as Bo-Katan and Aayla both tense at his back. He’d taken the lead in this charge, and it was down to him to actually speak up, but Fett’s sudden thoughts were confusing him. “Fett. Shame how this has all gone down.” “Yes.” Janga’s answer to Bo-Katan’s response is bitten out through clenched teeth. She looks like a trapped and cornered animal in this moment, and with Boba glaring angrily at them, fear and hatred alike filling her gaze, one might understand why. But what Tylo doesn’t quite get is why Janga’s thoughts seem so apologetic towards her unaltered clone. Surely, she doesn’t think they’ll harm a child, does she? Gonna have to be the self-destruct. Can’t let them take me alive. Should have sent you on your own, Boba. I’m so sorry, my daughter. Tylo’s eyes widen at that, and time itself almost seems to slow down to a crawl. Without her hands, there’s only one way that Janga must think she can activate a self-destruct. Her voice. As her mouth opens, not a single ounce of her desperation or fear or sorrow is betrayed by her expressionless face. If not for his ability to read her mind, Tylo wouldn’t have even known that she was almost certainly about to rattle off a verbal code that would cause the ship’s computer to initiate an automatic and instantaneous self-destruct. But he does know, and he reacts without thinking. The distance between them is too great for him to reach her before she can speak. He could have thrown his lightsaber and guided that with the Force, but even with as much of his time as he’d put into lightsaber practice, he wasn’t completely convinced he could cut down Janga Fett without hurting Boba at the same time… nor did he particularly WANT to kill the child’s mother right in front of her. Boba might be a clone, but it was abundantly obvious Janga thought of her as her daughter. And so, Tylo finds himself reaching for the Dark Side once more… and constricting Janga’s airways. It’s become all too easy, to reach for this particular dark power. All too easy, to restrict someone’s breathing. He cuts her air off, and grips down on her windpipe with his mind, and suddenly Janga’s breath is catching in her throat, and she can’t speak the words she wants to speak. What? Can’t… breathe. Can’t… speak. What’s… happening? He’s about to do something else, like tell his Master that Janga is going to activate a self-destruct and leave it to Aayla to physically intervene, but before he can do any of that, before Janga can even begin to choke, Bo-Katan suddenly speaks up again. “Yeah. Real shame, how that Dooku fellow tricked you into working against our true employers. But hey, the Jedi are real understanding. And considering it was one of their own gone rogue that did the tricking, they should be forgiving… don’t you think?” All eyes in the cockpit turn towards Bo-Katan, in that moment. Janga’s surprise flickers across her sweat-covered face for a moment, before vanishing. Boba blinks as well, while Aayla… cocks her head to the side. “After all, we were hired by the Jedi to make the Clones, yeah? This Dooku fellow was apparently a Jedi Master too, once upon a time. Bet you didn’t know that, did you Janga?” Slowly, Tylo relaxes his hold on the bounty hunter’s throat, pulling it back to a firm grip but no longer choking her out. Thankfully, she doesn’t try to speak again, not even to answer Bo-Katan’s words. She just sits there in silence. Her mind and thoughts on the other hand… Of course I knew who Dooku was. He was the one who… no, why is she saying this? She’s trying to… what, give me an out? Ridiculous. Who does she think she’s talking to? Look, Janga. The Jedi could have arrested me when they showed up on Kamino, but they didn’t. Because they understand we were just doing our jobs. We’re victims here, you and I. Stand down. Let them treat you. We’ll get this all cleared up in no time. No one else has to get hurt.” Bo-Katan’s head turns a minor fraction of an inch as she says that, and though her eyes are hidden beneath her helmet, it’s obvious, at least to both Tylo and Fett, that she’s looking right at Boba. C’mon, Fett. Trying to give you a way out of this that doesn’t involve you blowing yourself and your kid to hell. Don’t be an idiot… Tylo waits with bated breath to see if Janga will go for it or not. If not for Boba, he’s almost certain she wouldn’t. But after a moment of wordlessly looking at her daughter, the handless Mandalorian comes to the right decision. “… Yeah. We’re standing down. Not like I can do much as I am anyways. Boba… be good.” The young clone looks positively mulish at that, even as Tylo, Aayla, and Bo-Katan all relax. Although, just as Tylo is letting a relieved smile spread across his face, a stray thought from his Master hits his mind. Padawan… what did you just do? Was that… the Dark Side? Well. Fuck. -x-X-x- Nothing immediately comes of his little slip up. He gets his lightsaber back off of Fett’s ship and that’s about it. Mostly because they have way too much else to concern themselves with, in the aftermath of… well, just about everything. Janga and Boba Fett are taken into Jedi custody, while their ship, Slave I, is impounded by the GAR, otherwise known as the Galactic Army of the Republic. The Senate worked with lightning speed, to be honest. The Battle for Geonosis wasn’t even over yet by the time the Republic had accepted the Clone Army and worse still, assigned the Jedi Order to command it. Suddenly, in what felt like mere hours, his Master had become a General. Tylo himself had become a Commander. It was insanity, plain and simple, and yet… it seemed to just be accepted. Maybe if things were all fine on a personal level, Tylo would be more inclined to do something about it, but at the same time… Annie had lost an arm. He wasn’t entirely sure his or Aayla’s presence would have truly done anything more besides potentially get them maimed or killed as well, but the fact of the matter was, his decision to follow Aayla’s lead and chase down Fett had left Annie and Kenobi alone when they finally confronted Count Dooku. WHY the Master-Padawan pair had been the ones to do the confronting, rather than say, any of the numerous Jedi Masters who had been rescued from the battlefield of Geonosis, Tylo couldn’t say, nor could he find any acceptable answers on the subject either. In the end, there was no changing what had happened though. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Annie Skywalker had faced off against Count Dooku… and they had lost. Annie, most of all, had lost her arm to the monstrous Count. If not for Master Yoda’s late arrival, the two Jedi might have lost their lives altogether! In the aftermath of that fateful encounter, with war brewing and quick at that, everything was up in the air. And Tylo found himself being pulled in multiple directions. Annie had apparently made quite the connection with Senator Amidala during their time together on Tatooine and Naboo, because the Senator had effectively bull rushed her way into paying for not only the best prosthetics money could buy for the Jedi Padawan, but she’d also demanded that Annie be allowed to recover on Naboo itself for at least a week or two before returning to duty. Somehow, that had turned into an invitation for Tylo to do the same, even though he hadn’t taken any injury… or even seen any real fighting. But apparently his status as Annie’s friend, and Padme’s status as popular Senator, gave her enough leeway to make the request, leaving Tylo with the choice of whether or not to accept the invitation. At the same time, while Aayla was willing to let him go if he wanted to, it was obvious she wished for him to stay instead and talk to HER. About what exactly, Tylo didn’t need to guess. She was concerned about his use of the Dark Side… but more than that, she’d missed him. It would be easy enough to set aside her concerns, but it would probably take him enough time to do so via copious amounts of sex that he wouldn’t be able to accept Padme’s invitation. Finally, there was the bigger picture. Would it not be selfish, to choose Annie and Padme, or even Aayla, over demanding an audience with the Jedi High Council and attempting to get the information he’d uncovered to them as soon as possible? The longer he waited, the more harm would be done, and the more the Jedi would be entrenched and trapped within the confines of the Grand Army of the Republic. But then, would they even listen to him? Tylo didn’t know. He honestly didn’t know WHAT the right call was here. Everything felt like it had something of a time limit to it. No matter what he chose, he felt like he was missing out in some way, somehow.