Destroy Malevolence
Catra sighed as water slid down her body and through her fur, having just a quick shower in her room aboard the cruiser. Just to wash away the stress of the day, having done so much. Unfortunately it was going to have to be quick as the cruiser was still pursuing the Malevolence, which at the moment was having turbolasers raining upon it from all three cruisers.
“I shouldn’t take too long here,” Closing her eyes, lifting her head as water crossed down over her face, hearing the downpour as it impacted against her ears, “I’ll take another one later.”
Catra’s tail wrapped around the handle and turning off the water exiting the shower, having a blast of warm air hit her from above after exiting, somewhat drying her a bit. Having to pat down her hair after it floofed up, her hair wasn’t as long as it had been back at home, but it wasn’t short either, just reaching her shoulders.
Her clothes on the other hand would have to wait longer to clean as she put them back on after leaving the bathroom, adding a few things from her small workshop to her belt. There was a blaster which was given to her by her mother, and a plasma grenade. She always carried one in case of emergencies.
Though looking back, perhaps it was for the best she didn’t take that while with Master Plo, wouldn’t have helped at all. Could have done more damage than good.
The blaster on the other hand she left behind on purpose at the request of Obi-wan, he didn’t mind that she used one but prefers she would use her lightsaber. To be fair she didn’t think she needed to take it thinking it was just going to be a ship battle. It was more like a massacre in the end.
Pulling the holo-projector off her belt to put it away for now, thinking about it before deciding to keep it with her. It was something new and it was a gift from Ahsoka...she thinks. Ahsoka hasn’t exactly asked for it back. Either way she can now call Obi-wan with it, but there was another she needed to add.
After a few seconds of putting in a code, she waited patiently for a response as she put it on the table.
“I swear if this is another one of those stupid ad things,” A hologram of an annoyed looking Lonnie appeared, rubbing her face groaning before noticing who it was, “... this is better than an ad. How are you doing Catra?”
Lonnie was part of Catra’s tribe from back home, having been allowed to follow after Catra when she went to train as a jedi. Having been made a bodyguard for her since she was the chieftain's daughter. Though Catra wasn’t stupid about one thing, they set it up that way hoping for the two of them to become the next leaders and to stay.
Well they didn’t expect the outcome of Lonnie wanting to follow Catra into space. Catra thanks Obi-wan for making the deal.
“Alive...the past few hours have definitely seen a lot of action,” Sighing ears twitching, giving her gear one last check-up before picking it up, “A few close calls.”
“Well while you were involved in action I had to sit around for a few hours, bored as hell,” Lonnie groaned, cracking her knuckles slightly, “Though I'm waiting on a ship at the moment.”
“It was part of the agreement that when I had to train as a Jedi you had to come with me at the request of my mothers. They just don’t know we have different jobs,” Smirking slightly while shaking her head, changing that to a gentle smile, “I probably wouldn’t be here if they didn’t allow you to come. Anyway, why are you on a ship?”
“Yeah yeah, we’ll leave the emotional stuff when we meet up later,” Lonnie chuckled slightly leaning back in her seat, “Some sort of mission from the chancellor, they're talking on the entry ramp right now before we take off.”
“He seems nice, but I don't trust him much myself…” Catra has met him a few times, but somethings always felt wrong about him, like something dark caged inside, and he held the key to open it at any time.
“Me neither, but let’s not announce it to the world…” Lonnie’s laughter slowly died as her face held dread, “Oh...crap, here comes the walking gold translator.”
“And that is my queue to hang up, say hi to padme for me…” Catra bit her tongue slightly at the slip of the tongue, but Lonnie just quietly smirked.
“Remember when it’s just us, Amidala and Ahsoka you can say that all you want...not like we need to hide it as most people know already...hell even Skywalker knows even if he is jealous about it.” Lonnie gave a small wave to her before her hologram disappeared.
Catra let a smile grace her face as she reattached the projector to her belt before leaving her room. The hallways were filled with clones going and doing their assigned tasks, some of them waving as she was walked by. Returning those waves with a smile and a small wave of her own.
Stepping into an elevator by herself, pressing the button to take her up to the bridge of the ship. Entering the command station of the bridge, all the clones who worked on the bridge were working efficiently at their stations, some in charge of firing weapons while others were calculating stuff to do with their own cruiser. Obi-wan was standing towards the front of the bridge near the windows.
Sensing her arrival, Obi-wan turned to face her as she approached despite her footsteps being silent as her bare feet walked across the surface, “How are you feeling, Catra?”
“Better, having a shower felt nice and helped stress leave my body, clothes still stink though.” Catra sniffed a little and pretended to be disgusted, “Made a quick call to Lonnie, she’s doing fine...even if her ears are being talked off by C3PO.”
“You’ll be able to clean your clothes once we’re done. Oh good, now you can use your own holo-projector instead of mine, always felt awkward listening to your conversations with your partners,” Obi-wan chuckled, every so often his eyes shifted back to the chase, still not having much luck damaging the ship, “Change of topic, but you’ll also be happy to know Matchstick is fine.”
“That’s a relief. I didn’t trust the look of his ship, so I did what I felt was right.” Catra breathed out, glad she had made the right call, her shoulders relaxing as her tail swayed slowly.
“Your instinct was correct, the ship burst into flame once he landed. Got a few burns but otherwise alive,” Obi-wan had received that report from Anakin while Catra was showering, they knew she would want to know, “Plo didn’t mention it when you reported it the first time...but he informed me about what the Ion cannon was doing to your hearing.”
“H-He told you that?” That was one thing Catra hadn’t talked about not wanting Obi-wan to worry, turns out Plo told him anyway, “It… hurt because it was unexpected. After the first time I was prepared, i’m not an idiot... if it had hit me directly and my ears weren’t protected. I’d probably be deaf.”
“Perhaps I should have been a little more considerate and not sent you against an unknown foe.” Obi-wan looked apologetically, giving a small bow.
“It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known. At least the ion cannon has been crippled.” Catra looked at the flame and smoke rising from the crippled and fleeing form of the Malevolence.
“Crippled, yes. But if it escapes, then they’ll have enough time to repair it.” Obi-wan also focused his attention on The Malevolence.
They stood in silence as they kept their eyes on the target, with Master Plo and the Admiral soon joining them. One thing they were all feeling...uneasiness. The longer the ship stood, the implications of what were to happen if it fled grew.
“Commander, what is the damage level to the enemy ship?” Obi-wan turned to a clone, wanting to assess the damage and how much longer this could take.
“She’s lost her primary shields and stabilizers,” The clone commander stood, looking up at them, “But the ship is so massive, it can take all the fire our cannons can give it.”
“We must summon reinforcements.” Plo suggested as they thought of a few ideas.
“That’s why I'm here Master Plo.” Anakin walked onto the bridge with Ahsoka following right behind him.
“Were you able to contact Master Luminara?” Obi-wan asked, folding his arms. Ahsoka walked up and stood beside Catra.
“Yes, Master. She’s busy with a fleet of Separatist reinforcements nearby,” Anakin walked up to Obi-wan, “She won’t be able to give us support until she’s turned them away.”
“Hey, i’m curious,” Catra knelt down to be face to face with the clone commander, while the others were busy speaking, “Since I haven’t read the books lately, but Is there a type of scan to tell where the structure of the ship could be weaker?”
“We’re scanning the ship at the moment, and we’ll have a better understanding when it’s complete. It is the only type of it’s kind,” The clone sighed in relief, anyone probably would as having a whole fleet of them would be terrifying, “But if I had to take a guess, perhaps the bridge as there’s less bulk than the rest, but hitting it would be difficult.”
“Hmm, that would make sense,” Catra thought for a bit, rubbing chin while thinking, looking back at the ship before something clicked, ears standing up, “How about their hyperdrive? I know every ship would have one. Just wondering why the enemy hasn’t used theirs.”
“That...is a good question, it might not work but i’ll give it a try with that suggestion,” Sitting down at his screen and messing with a few buttons, Catra watched the clone looked shocked but then smirked, “Well what do you know...their hyperdrive is damaged.”
“Thanks for that, this might help end this conflict quicker.” Catra grinned back while her tail swayed, standing and facing back to the others.
“Then we’ll have to make do with what w-” Obi-wan was directing his gaze back to the ship, stopping mid-speech when his eyes passed Catra, who still had her grin showing her fangs, sighing before asking, “Should i be worried?”
“Actually, with the commanders help i figured a few things out,” Catra fidgeted when all eyes were on her, Ahsoka smiled reassuring her, “I figured the reason you’re firing for the bulk of the ship trying to destroy it before it can jump….but what if i told you the hyperdrive has been damaged.”
“Then...this is our chance. All ships target the bridge. Maximum firepower!” Obi-wan ordered for the cruisers to fire upon the bridge, his smile calm and gentle looking at Catra, “I sometimes forget your good at analyzing situations.”
“Hey, it’s how I survived most encounters on my home planet. Better to get information than just sitting around discussing what to do...sometimes i got into trouble with that,” Catra nervously chuckled, not meaning to be malicious since that’s what they had been doing anyway, tail wrapping around Ahsoka’s wrist and dragging her a bit away, “You three have fun with your talk.”
Ahsoka stumbled slightly not expecting to have been pulled away, but found her footing quickly as they stood at a console nearby. Ahsoka took the opportunity to use the console while Catra just leaned against it, “So...why did you drag me away?”
“Two things, firstly,” Catra pulled the holo-projector off her belt, looking at it while her claws gently scraped the sides of it, “Did you want this back?”
“Ohh, right. Yeah that’s yours, I was planning to give it to you before you had gone with Master Plo,” Ahsoka smiled, pulling one off her own belt, “This one is actually mine.”
“Well at least i don’t need to worry about that,” Catra quickly added the code for Ahsoka’s into her own, putting it away while her ears twitched, “And talked to Lonnie not too long ago.”
“Lonnie? Not Padme?~” Ahsoka whispered with a tease, Catra was the only one who was afraid to say it in front of others.
“N-No, she was busy at the time, apparently they’re going on a mission,” Catra thought back to the conversation, “Don’t know what it’s about though.”
“Usually it’s something with meetings and getting people to join us.” Ahsoka suggested with a smile.
Their conversation was interrupted as the console started beeping, it’s scanner indicating something had just come out of hyperspace. While Ahsoka went to scan quickly, Catra looked out the window. It...didn’t seem like reinforcements as they were no indication of the large ships.
So what was it?
“Master, we’re picking up on a signal near the enemy vessel,” Ahsoka called out to Anakin, Obi-wan and Plo, “Something just came out of hyperspace.”
“Enemy reinforcements?” Anakin asked, there was a hint of worry in his voice, but otherwise didn’t show anything else.
“I personally don’t think so, I don’t see any of the large separatists ships,” Catra voiced her opinions, eyes narrowing trying to spot it with her eyes, “Most likely a small ship though.”
“Catra is right, it’s small but not an enemy,” Ahsoka confirmed her thoughts as her scan was still trying to get results.
“Told ya.” Catra might have felt a little smug.
“It looks like...a Naboo ship.” Ahsoka's voice muttered softly, feeling a little bit of panic looking at Catra. Both of them are thinking the same thing.
“Gunners! Stand down!” Obi-wan shouted the order, most likely thinking the same thing as the padawans, knowing Anakin or Plo hasn’t figured it out yet, “What in blazes are they doing out here?”
“Ahsoka, contact that ship!” Anakin requested quickly, not knowing Catra was already doing so.
Catra quickly fiddled with her holo-projector nearly having dropped it in the process as she tried dialing up Lonnie. Ahsoka was looking over her shoulder worried as well. It started up showing Lonnie gripping her seat in one hand, holding her project in the other, shaking around a bit.
“Catra! Ahsoka! This isn’t exactly the best time to call!” Lonnie’s voice sounded strained, her eyes darting back and forth between them and whatever was causing them to shake, “We wandered into the middle of a battle!”
“Crap! So it is you!” Catra panicked, which definitely got the attention of the others.
“Catra, is that who i think it is?!” Obi-wan called out to them, moving towards the main console, “Lonnie tell her to contact us!”
“Did you hear that Senator?” Lonnie shouted out..
A few seconds later the console showed the hologram of Senator Amadalia in her pilot's seat, expanding slightly to show Lonnie just a few seats back in her own seat. C3PO was seeming to hold onto something for dear life.
“Padme?” Anakin rushed forward to the hologram, Catra and Ahsoka generally didn’t mind him saying her name as he did know her longer, “What are you doing out here?”
“We were sent on a special mission. The senate was told the Banking Clan wanted to negotiate a treaty,” Padme explained the mission she had been sent on, sighing disappointment in herself, “I see now the whole thing was a trap.”
“I told you that about five times already, looks like I was right,” Lonnie called from the background, the usual smugness of being right wasn’t present, “Wish I wasn’t.”
“Oh hush you, I’ll apologise later.” Padme looked over her shoulder at her.
“Well you need to get out of there first!” Catra shouted standing next to Anakin, tail standing tall.
The hologram shook a little as it flickered, meaning the whole ship shook.
“Have we been hit?” C3PO robotic voice hurt Catra’s ears slightly, the reason she didn’t really talk with him much.
“I’m afraid it’s much worse than that.” Padme was pressing a few buttons but nothing seemed to change the outcome.
“What’s happening?” Ahsoka made her way beside Catra.
Obi-wan would have made a teasing remark seeing how worried and protective Catra and Ahsoka were, if it wasn’t for the situation they were in.
“We’re being pulled inside the droid cruiser by a tractor beam. I will not be made a Separatist bargaining chip!” Padme seemed angry, which was definitely understandable, “Continue your attack! You must destroy this monstrous ship!”
The hologram cut off as their ship was pulled inside. Obi-wan watched closely, seeing both Ahsoka and Catra saddened by the outcome, while it wasn’t entirely shown on Catra’s face, her droopy tail showed. Anakin clenched his fist quelling his anger, before coming to a decision.
“Admiral, order our ships to stop firing.” Anakin turned to him, receiving a nod in return as he carried out the order.
It was silent for a few seconds, before Anakin turned around and started walking off, Obi-wan following after him, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Somebody has to save her skin.” Answered simply.
“I thought you might say that,” Obi-wan had a smile in his voice, turning to look at Ahsoka and Catra, “You two coming?”
“I’ll stay here with Master Plo, someone needs to keep an eye on things here,” Ahsoka smiled, giving Catra a quick hug, causing her to purr slightly, “Make sure you bring them back.”
“I wouldn’t come back without them,” Catra grinned, ears flattened with the hug, before jogging after Obi-wan, “Wait up.”
“Figured you wouldn’t want to stay here after all.” Obi-wan chuckles before walking off with her.
“I trust you’ve already formulated a brilliant plan to rescue the Senator?” Obi-wan questioned Anakin as both he and Catra entered the bridge of the twilight.
Catra sat in her seat to the side letting Obi-wan take the co-pilot's seat next to Anakin. Tail wrapping around the back of her chair as a safety net in case Anakin did any spinning. Ears twitching patting the top of R2’s dome as she waited, the droid chirping and beeping slightly in annoyance as she did it daily, but otherwise didn’t mind.
“As a matter of fact, I have.” Standing up switching some switches above him, before sitting back down again.
“Great, can’t wait to hear what you have.” Catra rolled her eyes slightly smirking, as much as she would pretend to hate his plans, they turned out fun.
“You know you enjoy them, mittens,” Anakin chuckled in response, “Snips not coming?”
“Nah, she’s going to stay and help from here,” Catra shook her head while picking at her claws slightly, “So you have one plan. Any other plan?”
“Catra’s right, do we have a plan B?” Obi-wan turned his chair slightly, setting his gaze on him, “Every operation needs a backup, Anakin.”
“I don’t have backup. Yet,” Anakin started up the engines, “But I do have a plan for getting on that ship.”
“Really?” Obi-wan was slightly intrigued at what the plan might be.
“The enemy’s sensors are obviously damaged, so we’ll sneak in behind them and dock at the emergency airlock.” Anakin was confident in his plan working, and it sounded fine.
“That’s your plan?” Obi-wan raised an eyebrow, “Just fly there, land, hope they don’t spot us, and walk in the door?”
“...that sounds like it sums up his plan entirely,” Catra hummed titlign head slightly, left eye closed in thought, “Right, Anakin?”
“Basically.” Anakin smiled with a shrug.
“Oh! Brilliant,” Obi-wan acted like he was surprised, but he really wasn’t, “Let’s get going.”
“Well we got part of a plan, i know the next step would be to find them,” Catra sighed leaning back to relax as the twilight took off and left the hanger, “But how? The ship is massive.”
“We’ll have R2 connect to the ship once we’re aboard, scan for their location then proceed from there.” Anakin informed her without looking, the twilight slowly approaching the ship from behind.
Catra felt nervous as they approached the massive burning ship, sure she’s seen it from afar and close from her last two encounters. But it felt all too different that she was about to be inside of it, and the feeling of dread came from one thing. General Grievous, the droid commander who was recently haunting her dreams.
A flash of the nightmare appeared in her vision for a second, she knew for certain it was a nightmare, doesn’t mean she can stop thinking about it. Catra knew that Ahsoka and Master Plo were safe back on the ship so that’s already different. Of course her mind played a dirty trick on her by replacing Ahsoka with Lonnie instead.
“You okay back there, Catra?” Obi-wan looked concerned, since she wasn’t really hiding her feelings.
“Just...the nightmare again, doesn’t help when we are about to be closer to the cause of it.” Catra didn’t hide her thoughts this time, she found it easier to talk to him when actually in his presence, and not over a holo-call.
“Understandable, I’ll say again it’s just a dream,” sighing before looking at the ship, “But maybe getting rid of the cause will help.”
“You’ve been having nightmares, Catra?” Anakin didn’t say her name that often unless it was important.
“Yeah…” Rubbing her eyes slightly, being careful of claws as she removed the slight bit of tears just from remembering the nightmare.
“I have had some as well...I won’t go into full detail, but calm your emotions and don’t let your nightmare fuel them,” Anakin focused his eyes on the ship, “It can be dangerous.”
Catra was surprised at the slight bit of wisdom he gave, though he didn’t usually do that much. She was curious about some of his past but never wanted to bother him, it seemed a bit rude to do, especially when it felt like he didn’t want to talk about it at all.
The Twilight approached ever closer to the ship, making it a bigger threat and quite possibly their death if they were spotted. Obi-wan knew this as well, “If they spot us, We’ll be pulverised.”
“They’re too busy repairing the ship,” Anakin held the controls as he was slowly moving them into position, “They don’t have time to notice us.”
“Subtlety has never been one of your strong points Anakin,” Obi-wan shook his head before pointing to Catra, “One of Catra’s strong points though.”
“That’s if they don’t know i’m there, then i can work it well,” Grinned happily at the small bit of praise, “Though i’m good at being direct as well.”
“That is true.” Obi-wan chuckled.
“Everything I know, I learned from you master.” Anakin sneakily grinned at Obi-wan.
“Oh, if only that were true.” Obi-wan shook his head.
Catra had to cover her mouth, laughing slightly but also feeling nauseous as Anakin had to spin the ship, only a little but it still made her sick. Managing to dock the ship at the emergency airlock.
She had to be guided by Obi-wan to the elevator that connected them to the ship.
“Anakin, you’re crazy,” Obi-wan sighed, shaking his head as the lift took them up, “Spinning is not flying.”
“But it’s a good trick.” Anakin smugly smiled.
“I agree...and disagree,” Rubbing her forehead as her senses slowly returned to normal, tail wrapping around leg, “All depends if I have to be on the ship as well.”
“We do not want to be spotted.” Obi-wan warned Anakin as the doors started opening, and revealed two droids which had been walking by at the time.
“I knew it! It’s them!” One droid was definitely frightened as it already knew they were coming, it made sense they would feel the rocking of them docking.
“Oh, no.” The other one seemed resigned to it’s fate, even if it backed away slowly.
Anakin and Obi-wan looked between each other planning to take them down at the same time, if Catra hadn’t jumped past them first without hesitation. Slicing one in two with her lightsaber, while jumping over the other and yanking the antenna thing and disabling it as it stood there motionless.
“Sorry, you two were taking too long.” Catra smirked even if it had been a few seconds too long, using the force and lifting the disabled droid and placing it in the lift.
“What, pray tell, are you planning to do with that droid?” Obi-wan just moved to the side, curious as to why she wanted it.
“Well..I figured it might be useful for some reason,” Catra shrugged her shoulders, just getting raised eyebrows from both of them, “Andddd….I mostly want my own droid.”
“Makes sense, it’s hard to get droids at other times with them blasting at you, and we are close to the ship,” Anakin shook his head turning to R2, “You stay here, Artoo. Also make sure the droid actually is disabled.”
Making sure the coast was clear of any other droids, Catra, Obi-wan and Anakin dashed down the ruin hallways of the ship, destroyed droids under debris, small fires here and there accompanied by smoke. But it appears the droids have converged to the more seriously damaged parts of the ships to attempt repairs.
As they were running, the communicator on Catra’s right vambrace beeped and flashed green. A call was coming through.
“Um, yes?” Catra pressed the button as they continued to run.
“Catra, we’ve found Padme.” Ahsoka’s voice and words were like music to Catra’s ears, they wouldn’t need to search the ship top to bottom, “I’m patching her through..”
“W-Wait what?” Catra gulped slightly coming to a stop as Anakin and Obi-wan did as well, she had been expecting just to be given directions not actually talking to her directly, hearing the click as it connected, “A-Amidala!”
“Catra!” Padme’s voice came through sounding shocked as well.
“Are you all right? Where are you?” Anakin cut her off as she was about to ask the same thing.
“On the lower levels. We’re fine, but I don’t know for how long. Droids are everywhere.” Padme’s voice got closer and distant, Catra could imagine her looking over her shoulders to watch for incoming droids.
“Anakin, Obiwan and I are onboard, too.” Catra cut off Anakin this time, but noticed that he didn’t even try to say anything as he smirked, confusing her.
“What? What are you doing here?” Padme sounded confused and worried even more now.
“What did I say, told you she would come to get us.” Lonnie called from somewhere behind Padme, “Could you guys hurry up though, I lost my blaster so I can’t help her much.”
“We came to get you off the ship,” Groaning slightly embarrassed at being called out by Lonnie, “Ahsoka, how can we get to them?”
“According to our scans, there seems to be a large open area in the center of the ship,” Ahsoka explained with Catra keeping every detail in her brain of how to go about it, “It should be halfway between the two of you.”
“We’re on our way,” Nodding to Anakin and Obi-wan, facing her communicator again, “Did you hear that A-Amidala?”
“We’ll be there, and I expect you to call me Padme face to face.” Padme left with a teasing remark as the comms went dead.
They swiftly proceed further through the hallways, Catra looking back and forth between her vambrace to inspect the small map to find the large open area. Honestly though, it wasn’t too hard to find as she had to skid to a stop before she plunged over the edge.
Large open area was definitely the right word, as looking left and right it traveled the length of the ship, trains zooming by back and forth carrying supplies to different locations of the ships. Whether that might be on the tallest areas, or the bottom, you could most likely reach any area of the ship from here.
Meaning it would be difficult to even spot, and reach Padme and Lonnie.
“I don’t see them.” Obi-wan was looking around as well, not having luck at all either.
“They’re here, I can sense them,” Catra was focusing her thoughts to locate them, finding it difficult with the trains and the amount of electricity in the area, her ears twitching at the sound of blaster fire, “I can also hear them.”
They all directed their eyes down slightly and to the left to another door across to the other side, Padme using a blaster and firing at droids. Lonnie had picked up one of the droid's blasters and was firing back as well, while C3PO was walking down the ramp to get away.
The three of them activated her lightsabers and moved into action. Thanks to her training and the force she was able to keep up, even if they were making great leaps, and falls without being hurt, of course there was a limit. But right now it was fine. Not even the moving trains were a difficulty.
Catra may or may not have practised back home, jumping from moving vehicles to another.
She couldn't help but snicker though when two droids fired at them, Anakin and Obi-wan deflecting them back into the droids which had fired. The third droid seemed disappointed, shaking its head at the two destroyed droids by it’s side. It had made the correct decision of not firing, even if she also wanted to do the same.
Catra noticed though that Lonnie, Padme and C3PO ended up on different trains.
“I’ll get Lonnie, make sure you get Amidala!” Catra poked Anakin before jumping towards another train.
Running across the roof of the train she spotted Lonnie firing at droids that managed to jump onto it as well, having to hide behind a box of supplies to prevent her head from being blasted off. Taking a breath she made a jump which was bigger than the ones before, making sure the lightsaber wouldn’t hit her.
Stopping her fall by kicking one of the droids off the train, she quickly spun on her feet decapting another. Almost being shot by the third one, but was thankfully destroyed by Lonnie. Catra’s momentum was still going, flailing to try and grab anything to prevent her from falling. Lonnie’s arm wrapped around her waist and stopped her.
“Is this the second time you’ve fallen for me?” Lonnie just smirked and made sure Catra was stable on her feet, but didn’t remove her arm from her waist.
“I made a mistake…” Groaning in annoyance at the joke, but her purring overrides those feelings cuddling close, “...glad you’re safe.”
“Me too,” Lonnie smirked, giving her a small peck on the lips, “Been a while since I’ve done that.”
“P-Pretty sure you could have just kissed Padme,” Catra blushed, tail standing up, embarrassedly moving from her hold despite her chuckling, not knowing where the train was taking them as they head down a tunnel, “A-and we should be focused on the mission.”
“Sure, sure, we’ll wait till we get back to your room on the cruiser.” Lonnie just smiled, shaking her head.
“Anakin,” Obi-wan’s voice came through on her communicator, as they had linked up earlier to keep in contact, “I got separated from your droid.”
“Threepio!” Padme’s voice also came through, it seems like Anakin managed to get to her in time.
“I’ll take care of it. We’ll meet you back at the Twilight.” Anakin would probably end up doing something else before that though.
“No! We can’t leave yet. I overheard Grievous,” At Padme mentioned the name, the flash of the nightmare haunted her once again, but she quickly shut it down, “Their hyperdrive is almost repaired.”
“I’m already headed in that direction,” Obi-wan confirmed where his whereabouts was, “So I’ll make certain that the hyperdive stays offline. Where are you Catra?”
“Umm, right about…” Catra looked at her vambrace to look at the map, feeling Lonnie tapping her shoulder to get her to look up. Their train stopped next to another which had been coming from the opposite way, Obi-wan standing on it, “Here.”
“Well that was convenient, anyway since you’re here let’s head to the hyperdrive to shut it down.” Obi-wan jumped from the train onto the platform, Lonnie and Catra following close behind.
While heading for the Hyperdrive room, Catra gave her blaster to Lonnie since she would have more experience at using it, having used it before. Catra stopped Obi-wan and Lonnie before they headed in as her ears twitched.
“So, this is most obviously a trap, a dozen of droids from from the left and right,” Pointing from the doorway at the other doors only accessible by the platforms, “Some ready to come in behind us, while there’s three spinners behind the console where the droids are.”
“That sounds like quite a few, hope all my shots hit.” Lonnie sighed but was prepared fro the fight.
“As fortunate as it is to know the information, we have to spring the trap if we want to try and shut down the hyperdrive.” Obi-wan had his lightsaber prepared as well.
“I know, but at least we know they’re here already.” Catra nodded, reaching and rubbing her ears, there was another noise she couldn’t quite pinpoint or accurately describe.
Slowly the three of them entered the room, approaching the two unarmed droids at the console, they were obviously the bait of the trap. Soon the lights turned on as both doors from the left and right ramps opened up, a dozen or so droids flooding the platform slowly.
On que the dozen that had been hidden behind them as well, also entered the room preventing their escape from all directions, and last but not last the three spinning droids came out from behind the console. Unfurling into armed mode and having their shields around them.
Maniacal laughter filled the room as it originated from behind them, but not from the same door as there was another further up. And that’s where he stood, General Grevious. Jumping down and landing in front of the droids closest to them with an audible thud from his size.
“Hello, there.” His yellow eyes bore into their souls, his slitted pupils narrowing on them as a predator would do to it’s prey.
This was the noise Catra couldn’t pinpoint, because it wasn’t either living or machine, it was a combination of both. Though from appearance it was more machine than living, she could hear the beat of his heart only minutely under the white armour.
Of course her own heart-beat quickened in pace at the sight of him, but tilting her head she knew one thing her mother said, ‘Something scares you? Laugh in its face’.
“General Kenobi, did you really think I would leave the hyperdrive unguarded?” Grievous pointed a blaster at them, not bothered at all to pull out his lightsabers.
“Anything is possible. You haven’t exactly impressed me today.” Obi-wan shrugged while stroking his beard.
“Wait...you’re telling me this badass looking droid, is General Grievous?” Catra was nervous, but smirked as both Lonnie and Obi-wan looked at her confused, getting some clarity watching Catra use her tail to point to the spinners.. Hell even some of the other droids were confused.
“I see, this must be your new padawan. I guess my reputation precedes me.” Grievous just laughed getting distracted, Obi-wan saw this as well, slowly backing up into position.
“HAHAHAHAHAH!” Catra’s laughter filled the air confusing Grevious and the droids, not noticing how Obi-wan had positioned himself between the three spinners along with Lonnie, “This is the big scary droid commander….what a coward!”
“Then how can such a coward, as you put it, kill so many of your clone allies with ease?” Grievous narrowed his eyes on her, having all attention drawn to her, slightly interested in how she deemed him a coward.
“Oh you know. The fact with all i’ve seen today, is you disabled everything in your way to easily destroy them without fighting back, targeting wounded troops,” Catra smirked as her fear was slowly washing away while confronting him flashing a fang, Grievous was snarling but hadn’t fired yet, “And let others fight your battles.”
“I’m going to enjoy killing you and adding your lightsaber for my collection.” Snarling, he aimed his blaster at her.
“One last thing...you're easily distracted” Smirking jumping backwards in an arc dodging his blaster fire as she landed behind a spinning droid, force pushing it towards him.
Obi-wan in turn used both hands to force push the other two and wiping the droids blocking the ramps, giving the three of them access to escape the sides. Grievous had dropped his blast to catch the one thrown at him, so he wasn’t able to blast at them, while a few droids behind him were blasted by Lonnie.
“Better luck next time!” Catra called out, deflecting a blaster bolt just as they escaped the room.
“Let’s slow them down a little more,” Lonnie grabbed the grenade from Catra’s belt, activated and threw it at the doorway, making it collapse in on itself from the blast, “Thanks for the gift.”
“It won’t slow him for long, let’s keep moving you two,” Obi-wan led the way as they followed after him, “Also good job on facing your fear, hopefully it will stop your nightmares.”
“You’ve been having nightmares?” Lonnie raised her eyebrow in concern at Catra.
“This is something we can address later when we aren’t being chased by a large psycho droid,” Catra shook her head, with quick movements of her tail, hitting switches to close the doors behind them as they passed through, activating her communicator, “So...General Grevious may be onto us.”
“Yeah, we noticed.” Anakin responded loudly, as blaster fire was heard on his end, most likely from Padme firing at droids.
“We’ll rendezvous back at The Twilight,” Obi-wan called out as they ran, “The fleet must engage the Malevolence!”
“Shit!” Catra rubbed her ears as static filled them for a few seconds before disappearing, “Their jamming the signal.”
Crash.
“We have a bigger problem than having our signal jamming!” Lonnie looked behind them, hearing crashing getting louder and closer.
Right on que at the end of the hall General Grievous sliced apart the locked door with lightsabers in either hand, eyes locking onto them as he began charging after them. They kept moving until they came to a platform where trains departed from with some just zooming by.
“Well we have no choice, hold on Lonnie.” Obi-wan grabbed Lonnie before force jumping onto one of the moving trains with Catra alongside him. Catra did have force jumping nailed, but force jumping while holding someone wasn’t something she was good at.
“I hate when that happens.” Lonnie groaned slightly, rubbing her head after they landed.
“Well at least we-” Catra stopped as her ears twitched at a loud clunk further down the train, seeing the droid commander land as well, “Nevermind then!”
Large crates were sliced and half and thrown off as Grievous jumped from cart to cart, crashing his way towards them while they moved towards the front of the train. Having to stop at a large flat empty cart with the front of the train being the next segment, Catra and Obi-wan activated their lightsabers with Lonnie preparing her blaster.
Swinging their lightsabers forward, they managed to counter Grievous as his lightsabers were blocked by theirs, the sizzling and sparks bouncing as they pressed together. Catra knew there was no point trying to trip him up with her tail, as he was most likely too heavy to move.
Grievous was forced to back off and protect himself as Lonnie fired at him, some bouncing of his armour, but made him close his eye as it impacted just below it. Obi-wan grabbed Lonnie and jumped over Grevious as their unspoken plan was put into action, with Catra forcing his attention onto her as she swung again.
“Looks like your master is abandoning you, perhaps if i should win i’ll put you in a zoo.” Grievous chuckled evilly as he his strength was overwhelming her.
“Can you shut up already? Your voice hurts my ears.” Catra’s eyes narrowed pushing up with a small burst of strength causing sparks to go into his eyes, jumping back just in time to avoid her tail being sliced off.
Jumping onto the last part of the train she ended up tripping on her feet, slipping up and falling onto her back and not having time to stand as the General jumped after her. Looming over her eyes narrowed, lifting his lightsaber, but stopped noticing the smirk on her face.
“You want to die so badly? I’ll grant your wish.” Raising his lightsaber higher.
“Nah, you’re just proving my point,” Chuckling slightly as ears pointed to the left smirking, “You’re easily distracted.”
Sliding off the side of the train, barely avoiding the lightsaber as some of her fur got singed from how close it was. Landing on a train going the opposite way, Obi-wan and Lonnie had jumped a little earlier as she had waited for the back of it. Giving Grievous a two finger salute as he couldn’t catch them now.
There are times where Catra herself thinks she’s a little too cocky, this was one of those times as before Grievous could get too far he pulled out his blaster and fired before they couldn’t see him. That blast hit the back of her right shoulder, having her hiss in pain dropping her lightsaber, catching it with her tail.
“Catra!” Lonnie quickly approached her, gently holding her free hand carefully, not wanting to injure her from too much movement, “Are you okay?!”
“Well….hurts like hell,” Hisses slightly as Obi-wan checks the damage, “I’ll live though.”
“That’s a given, I recommend when we reach The Twilight you sit down and rest,” Obi-wan moved his hand away, “I can’t help you from the Senator though.”
The train stopped at a platform not too much further down the way, quickly having to depart it before taking off again. Of course they couldn’t have time to relax as spinners chased after them as they got spotted, with Obi-wan the only one having to directed the blasts away as Lonnie helped Catra.
Their timing was perfect as they rounded the last corner to where the ship was docked, Anakin, Padme and R2 were opening the doors. Anakin turned around hearing the blaster fire and noticing them, used the force to block the fire with crates, giving them time to enter and the door to close behind them.
“Catra! Oh my god what happened?” Padme instantly noticed the injury as she inspected her.
“She was getting a little too cocky at a certain droid commander,” Lonnie rolled her eyes but was still smiling, but then flicking Catra’s ear, “Almost lost an arm as you can quite clearly tell by the fur on her arm.”
“Scold me all you want later please, but we really need to leave,” Catra's ear twitched from the flick as her tail dropped, before hugging Padme, “A-And it’s g-good to see you safe Padme.”
“You too, but just because you actually called me that doesn’t mean you’ll get less scolding.” Padme just smirked at her.
“It was worth a shot.” Shrugging her shoulders slightly, wincing from the pain though.
“Thought it might be fine, but I can tell it will hurt for a while,” Obi-wan sighed and faced her, “Sorry for this.”
Before Catra could respond her eyes slowly shut giving way to darkness as she fell asleep.
Slowly blinking awake to the bright white roof of the medical room, Catra knew they had made it back to the cruiser. The pain in her shoulder had subsided quite a bit, but there was still a lingering effect when trying to move it. Bandages wrap around her shoulder to help with the wound.
Turning her head since her ears twitched at the sound of movement in the room with her, the medical droid was further away with a clone trooper who from just a glance seemed to have a concussion. But she focused on the guest who was sitting next to her bed like a guard, Captain Rex.
“Did we destroy The Malevolence?” Catra rested her head back on the pillow to look at the roof again.
“That’s your first question when waking up? Geez kid, don’t need another skywalker,” Rex just chuckled, shaking his head, “It’s destroyed alright, hyper jumped straight into the moon.”
“...Skywalker?” It was more of a statement than a question, as only he could think of something like that.
“Skywalker.”
“Figured...hey Rex? I’m terrified of the next battle I'm going to fight.” Laughing nervously as she could sense a familiar three outside the room.
“Sorry kid, but it’s one you’ll have to face alone.” Shaking his head, laughing softly.