Log in
Trial Without a Judge
The droids and clones watched the three of us eye one another warily. I half expected the two sides to immediately start shooting the instant they saw one another. The clones were leaning more towards holding their fire since their general was in the way of an unknown figure and an enemy commander.
The droids were the ones I had fully expected to just open fire without even thinking about it. Instead we stared at one another for a long moment after my comment. It was tense. We watched each other like hawks, ready to fight to the bloody end.
Any twitch would set this powder keg off. Thankfully I don’t need to worry about that since my old habitual movements and constant shifts of my body are gone… I miss my old body. Ignoring the grim reminder of my robotic nature, I focused on the two Jedi.
“So who wants to pull the trigger first? Jedi general? Come on, you got two enemies and a horde of droids! Oh… that’s right, you just like to watch as your men get slaughtered.” I waggled my hand, gesturing at the enemy forces with excitement. “Or what about the Sith dropout! Come on, what happened to all that arrogance? You were just talking all that good shit a second ago!”
Ventress's head snapped towards me; her glare could freeze an ocean over. Luminara huffed in annoyance as much as she tried to hide it. My comments were getting under her skin. Even her men looked at one another as I felt the confusion and, in some cases, agreement with me.
“Kill them!” Ventress ordered lightsabers cutting into the floor, carving a circle before dropping into the newly made hole.
The droids did as ordered, opening fire while Luminar and I blocked several blaster shots. Hand raised in her direction, she leaned back from a blaster shot with flexibility no human could hope to have as I got a tantalizing view of her black robes that were tight in certain areas as my gaze was drawn towards her chest.
Her blade angled at me, prepared for the attack, to instead gape when a bubble the size of my fist formed out of my cloth-covered hand and floated towards her. Despite the weird spectacle her clones were subjected to, they remained professional, opening fire on the droids that marched onto their position.
Every five Abilities gained opened up another slot that any rare or above ability can be placed in. Anything below that threshold can be used at any time regardless of a slot being available. The downsides to the slots is if I want to swap a power out it’s put on cooldown for five minutes meaning I don’t have access to it in a bad situation that requires me to swap it only to need soon afterwards can end badly for me. But so far my kit seems enough to handle the threats before me.
My awareness made it nigh impossible for any blaster shots to hit me while trolling Luminara, who narrowed her eyes at the bubble lazily floating towards her. Her mouth opened and closed, unsure of what it was. Then it popped, with the sound drowned out by the blaster fire being exchanged in this corridor.
I leaned back casually despite the life and death situation we found ourselves in. My excitement was made obvious even through my robes, giving her twin finger guns after pocketing the lightsaber. “Gotcha!”
Her eyes narrowed as she let out an annoyed grunt at my antics. “For a parting gift I give you these bubbles to accompany you and your men on a wonderful job falling for a distraction!” Arms raised high into the air, twirling around the blaster fire from both sides as the clones tried to focus on me, having gotten annoyed at my antics and finally viewing me as a bigger threat than the droids.
Using what had seemingly been a useless power, I did something I just thought of in the spur of the moment. All across my body bubbles formed, not necessarily floating off of me but shoved by the copious amount of bubbles formed behind them in a grand chain.
Like a ladder, they extended out quickly, encompassing a great deal of space even faster than I had expected, and despite the blasters popping many of them, leaving a long trail, there were simply too many to be popped to see through.
Quickly moving towards a doorway, weaving around the blaster fire, my senses picking it out as a means to where I can go to get an even better reward for doing one of the greatest acts of good this galaxy could use right now. Moving through the ship, managing to avoid the bulk of the fighting as the droids swarmed the ship, despite how many were cut down, yet there was still enough left to keep the clones busy.
Throwing my senses out, I feel that negativity that could only come from Ventress. She was near the tail end of the ship, moving around a large area but remaining there for far longer than what would be considered necessary. It just made me move even faster, rushing through the ship, noting that what I assumed to be more clone troopers clustered together with a presence that radiated concern.
Another figure had both fear and confidence coming from them in equal measure. Though the feeling of desire… no, not desire. More like… greed. Greed surpassed all of it. I had long since come to the conclusion I was on that ship from the TV series that was supposed to transport Nute Gunray to Coruscant.
The same one that had Luminara on it with Ahsoka and Ventress being here further confirmed that. Though there were differences compared to the little I remembered from that episode. For starters, the droids all should have been long since taken care of, yet the crew was still overwhelmed and cut off from one another.
It didn’t take me long to move through the ship, occasionally killing the odd group of droids before I walked up to the room that had the containment cells for prisoners. The door opened with the clones on watch tensing when they realized I wasn’t one of their own.
"Blast 'em!" One yelled as they collectively opened fire. Ahsoka herself rushed over as I felt her presence come closer. The various clones fired at me, but their shots went wide, and the few that got closer I simply preemptively deflected, having already gotten an idea of which would need to be deflected.
My reading others' intent had grown substantially, not just from my recent sensory upgrade but from being pushed so much by Ventress and a little bit from Luminara. Practically dancing around their shots as they tried desperately to keep me from coming closer.
A flick of the wrist and a pivot on my heel had two blasters cut to glowing pieces, the clones falling back looking down at their dismantled blasters, then looking at themselves, realizing I hadn’t cut them.
Another three clones joined the other two with their weapons taken care of before a quick slash met the end of another blue lightsaber to the surprised expression of Ahsoka staring at me with wide eyes.
“Tobi?” She asked, sounding unsure.
“Good to see you too, shorty. How’s that diet?” Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at my comment.
“I am not short, nor do I need a diet. Why are you here?” She asked as each word was laced with suspicion. Yet I could feel, oddly enough, what I assume to be respect towards me. It felt warm but tempered like steel.
“To enact justice. That and seeing how the modern Jedi and dark disciple compared to the ones I had dealt with before… I found them rather disappointing.” Shaking my head ruefully.
Ahsoka frowned, her hands clenched at the comment. A hand patted her shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t take offense, that wasn’t directed towards you. You have great potential Ahsoka, in time you will be one of the best, talked about in legends and stories.”
She softened a little as the clones around us were wary, along with the blue-armored guards standing near the energy barrier for the cell, of what was the cause of all this chaos on this ship. Nute Gunray in the flesh. If I had skin, he would make it crawl with how he reminded me of an oversized maggot halfway to becoming a fly.
The man looked hopeful towards me, thinking I was here to save him. Ahsoka noticed the direction of my gaze before her eyes narrowed and her guard went up despite how hesitant she felt about fighting me.
“When you said justice, what do you mean?” Her hand palmed her new lightsaber. My hand reached into a fold of the sheets wrapped around me. She tensed before she froze, seeing her lightsaber she had lost when she nearly fell in our first meeting.
“I believe this is yours?” I held it out to her as she gingerly took it, examining it while the clones looked unsure of what to do. Part of them wanted to attack even if most of them no longer had a blaster, it wouldn’t stop them. Another part of them was not entirely certain I was a Separatist, let alone a true enemy.
“My lightsaber… thank you.” She said with a small appreciative smile. One that was quickly wiped away with my next words.
“As for your other question about justice, I was referring to someone who has long since overstayed their welcome and is overdue for an immediate execution.”
Whatever hope Nute Gunray had died as he stared at me wide eyed in fear. He raised a disgusting looking finger that looked like a wriggling larva. “Don’t let him near me, kill him!”
Ahsoka fell into a stance with her twin lightsabers igniting in a dual light show of emerald and azure. Despite how ready she was to fight me, her face showed she wasn’t just wary of facing me but also hesitant. Of what, I do not know.
The various clones who still had intact blaster rifles took aim but didn’t shoot out of fear of hitting Ahsoka. Sensing further away, Luminara and the clones backing her up finally finished off the droids they were dealing with and headed back towards us quickly after one of the clones here contacted her.
Even Ventress, who was still setting what I think were explosives in the ship, seemed to have stopped before she rushed back towards our side of the ship.
“I can’t let you do that, Tobi.” Ahsoka said resolutely, yet I could feel how she was torn. A part of her felt accepting of my statement, yet another part that was like warped, twisted steel that needed to be replaced must have been her beliefs resisting as she clung to them.
“Why?” I ask her, uncaring of the lightsabers leveled at me and the Jedi with the dark disciple rushing to get here.
“What do you mean, why?! He is a prisoner that will face a trial on Coruscant, killing him here in cold blood is not the Jedi way!” Ahsoka said to me earnestly, yet she seemed to have her doubts about what she just said. They were small and minuscule, but even small microcracks can lead to fractures if applied just right.
“You mean like the trials he faced after he invaded Naboo?” Whatever Ahsoka or any of the others was about to say fell short. I struck while the iron was still hot. “Got away with a slap on the wrist. I have been away for some time, but I have had a lot of catching up to do in this galaxy, and finding out that piece of slime still lives after all he has done… no, I cannot allow that to continue.”
"Well, that’s a shame because you're going to have to. We do this for the Republic even if we don’t like it, and our orders are to escort him to trial, and he will arrive alive.” What I assumed to be the clone commander cut in matter of factly.
“Oh, for the Republic, you say?” I asked back, getting an expressionless clone helmet staring at me. I looked towards everyone in the room, Ahsoka included, who looked more conflicted as the seconds went on. “Do you all serve the Republic and will do whatever is necessary to help the Republic?”
A series of confirmations and nods from everyone. I nodded sagely. “Good, good. Glad to see you all wish to help the Republic however you can, yet… you're hurting it with this blatant following of corruption.”
Everyone looked at me, and despite most of the clones and men in blue armor wearing helmets, I knew I had their attention and probably a good number of glares. “How do you figure that?” The commander said back testily, unsure if he even wanted an answer.
"Well, let me answer your question with a series of questions of my own. You don’t need to answer them, just think about it. That’s all I want you to do is think it over,” My hooded head swept over each person, landing lastly on Ahsoka, who still had her blades out but lowered them when she realized I wasn’t going to attack her. “For a long time, and when you think you have an answer, then you can tell me whether it is now or far into the future. Okay?”
Clasping my arms behind my lower back and swaggering into the center of the room, all of them eyed me warily while the commander and the remaining men who had functioning blasters kept them leveled at me but made no move to shoot. Probably counting on Luminara to get here as backup, but I had time since she and Ventress would take time to get here.
I didn’t want to kill anymore people-- clone or not, it didn’t change how I felt about it. If I could talk them down to let me kill Gunray, all the better.
"Alright, let’s start with a heavy question, and this goes for all of you amazing soldiers,” I said, gesturing to the various clone troopers, some of them looking at one another confused. “How many of your comrades and brothers in arms died by this bastard's hands? Even on simple orders that killed who knows how many of them since the start of this war that he and his allies started.”
A heavy silence permeated the room before several of the rank and file clones turned towards Gunray, who looked around like a trapped rat inside of the cell. He whimpered, his hands held up pleadingly, looking around for any sympathy or help. “We have our orders. Remember, we take him to Coruscant, and he will face punishment for what he has done!” The commander tried to reason with his men even if he himself sounded like he was seriously thinking about what I said and began to doubt his own words.
“Like he did with the invasion of Naboo?” I repeated what I had said before.
“That’s different, a single planet. Not only that, the number of lives lost in this war that involves the entire galaxy compared to the invasion of Naboo. The Republic court will punish him.” The commander gained more confidence in what he said as the troopers around us were torn. I could feel it through my haki, and even Ahsoka was unsure.
“Do you really believe that? Remember how many civilians he had ordered to suffer and be killed during that invasion. Keep in mind he is a high-ranking member of the Separatist movement, the information he has and his connections, even if he doesn’t escape, would have him living a cushy life in a high-rise cell in the lap of luxury.”
My words silenced him as he struggled with himself at not finding any way to counter my points, beginning to realize I was right. Yet he remained stubborn despite several of his own men beginning to lean towards my side, even if they were still ready to try and stop me simply because they were soldiers who had their orders. It’s something they were raised and bred to do, so I couldn’t condemn them on that.
“While all of your fallen brothers, Jedi, and countless civilians,” I said, using my control over my voice to do an Oscar-worthy performance. A righteous fury and desire to enact justice on one who has wronged many entered my voice, commanding their attention. “Men, women, and even children.” I said each word like the death knoll of a bell ringing for Gunray's head.
Each word made Gunray wince. Not out of guilt for the thing before us all had none. Not even an ounce of regret could be felt from the worthless maggot that leached off of anything and everything just to live another day and to save a quick buck. A man after Ebenezer Scrooge’s own heart.
He realized the tides were turning in my favor, and the only saving grace he had was that the others had good hearts and moral integrity. I didn’t want to fight them if I had to, but I would do what I had to eliminate Gunray, not just for the reward, but because it removed a pawn on Sidious’s board and saved lives.
If I could cut Gunray down now and remove whatever horrific orders he would give, all the better. It also made it less difficult to step in and take over the Separatists if it came down to it if they weren’t too weakened by it.
Cross that bridge when I get to it. Everyone in the room was looking between one another, Gunray for a long time between each person, the various emotions coming from them when they looked at him were not good. The clones who held blasters clenched them tightly as if they were struggling to not turn them on Gunray and kill him here and now themselves.
“Even so, we do this by the rules. We cannot undermine the Republic, if we do that, we are no better than the Separatists.” The commander tried to argue, sounding less confident and more conflicted himself.
“But what if killing him now before any rescue could come or trial that would let him go on living for information he had would help the Republic more than anything?” I said, stepping closer slowly to the commander.
His blaster was brought back up and aimed right at my chest, yet I made no sign of concern about it and no attempt to attack or stop him. Ahsoka followed behind me and looked uncomfortable. She was thinking about things she hadn’t bothered to do, especially when she was distracted by being caught up in this war and following orders.
“My information would be invaluable!” Gunray yelled out and pointed at me, looking between the troopers and me, hoping one of them would save him.
“That’s if you don’t lie or only give incomplete information and get who knows how many soldiers killed. You’ve already proven your treachery, why would this be any different? Especially when you know you are safe and in a position of power, albeit lesser than what you are now, to sabotage the Republic.”
“You say all of this and so readily speak for his death… you have to be a Separatist to want to silence Gunray so badly. Your forces have been beaten back, and the assassin herself was forced to retreat.” A man’s smooth voice spoke calmly, trying to turn this back on me. He wore that blue armor similar to the other guys who I knew weren’t clones.
Don’t know why they bothered to keep standard guys like this one around when the clones were proven time and again to be vastly better than the standard organic soldier of this era. I had a suspicion that this guy was the one who helped Asajj get Gunray out of here.
I don't remember much of the specifics of each episode, but I do remember Ventress killing him when they escaped after he turned traitor and helped Gunray. Time to nip that little issue now while I have the chance.
“Do you have a name?” I asked uncaringly and sounded less than impressed, but the man didn’t show any irritation, with that helmet helping hide what had to be a sneer or frown. But I could feel a twinge of annoyance at how I spoke to him.
“Argyus. I am a senate commando for the Galactic Republic, just like my fellow commandos." He jerked his head towards the other commandos, but none of them took their eyes off of me.
“That would explain why you are so useless and idiotic. You commandos are notorious for being corrupt, and quite frankly, the only reason any of you have your positions is because of your family connections and not your skill. Any one of these men could easily do your jobs far better.”
My hand swept across the room towards the clones. The clone commander was suspicious of me, while the other clones appreciated the compliment. While Ahsoka didn’t necessarily like my comment, she was more focused on what was happening.
“We serve the Republic and are the elite of the senate guards. You should be thankful we don’t shoot you on the spot.” Argyus said, finger moving towards the trigger.
“Just as you should be down on your knees thanking me for not killing you where you stand… traitor.” My back was turned against him. I can feel his surprise at what I just called him. “But I suppose I can’t hold it against you, one can only stomach hearing the corrupt senators whine all day about stupid things while you serve their every whim.”
He stood stock-still while the others looked between me and him. Ahsoka herself was wide eyed, her mouth hanging open in disbelief at my statement before she crossed her arms, frowning as she narrowed her eyes at me. “There’s no way Captain Argyus would be a traitor.”
I chuckled, making her look at me questioningly. I still had some time left before Luminara or Ventress arrived, but it will be close. Time to work my magic.
“Then why didn’t he immediately deny it?” My question made Ahsoka look at me strangely. A finger tapped her on the forehead with a playful boop sound, making her smack my hand away. “Eight to nine times out of ten if someone doesn’t immediately deny something in rage or indignation like a stuffy aristocrat like Argyus here, then it means what they were accused of may be true.”
Argyus laughed at my statement, making a show of taking a hand off of his blaster and wiping it down his helmet as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, yet it was all to hide his nerves and get a jumpstart when he had a flash of fear at being caught.
“So we are going off vague, non-scientific methods of how people react to random things they are accused of?” He said with a mirthful laugh.
Stepping in front of Ahsoka, tapping her arm subtly. “Use the force to see the truth from him. Sense if he is lying.” I whispered so only she could hear me. She looked up at me, blinking confused, but I hoped she would humor me. I’d rather not have to hurt her again along with the men in this room.
If I go for Gunray with them trying to stop me, then I would have no choice but to go lethal. In such close quarters with both Ahsoka, several clone troopers, and the senate commandos, it would be enough to make trouble for me when I have Luminara and Ventress nearing our position.
“No, we are not just using common street methods to find critical information from how someone reacts to something they could have potentially done. Your silence and the fear I felt from you were all I needed to know you're a traitor. It’s honestly laughably easy to know that this… Count Dooku, as he is called, would have an agent on the inside not having faith his apprentice could do the job on her own with a small army of droids.”
Argyus had another spike of fear that he smothered, but despite the brief moment it was there, Ahsoka felt it if the look of shock over her look of concentration was anything to go by. She had a feeling similar to steel despite the expression she had for a moment. A hint of denial, maybe stubbornness?
She looked at me with a questioning look and a casual gesture of my hand that could be played off as a simple adjusting of my cloak over my arm with my quirky personality, which I was doing before she went back to that look of concentration.
“How much did they pay?” I asked idly, hand gliding along a console and examining my finger for dust.
Argyus scoffed, looking between me and the commandos around him, who were occasionally glancing at him but not once taking me out of their sights. Even the clones were looking unsure but leaning towards Argyus' side with blasters all raised at me.
The atmosphere was tense enough you could cut it with a knife. I walked closer towards Gunray, positioning myself as close to him as I could as he picked up on it. The various soldiers' and clones' blasters were all aimed at me, with Argyus holding up a hand for me to stop. I tilted my head at him as if judging him. He picked up on what I found to be rather lacking.
“I serve the Republic--”
“Must have been quite a bit.” I cut him off, uncaring of the anger he was feeling, along with his concern about me not dropping the topic despite the others mostly now being on his side and against me. “Who paid, I wonder… couldn’t have been Gunray, he is a cheapskate and would have paid for a bunch of losers only because they are cheap even if his life would be forfeit.”
Gunray himself sputtered at that comment, trying to spout some nonsense about how he wouldn’t cheap out when his life was on the line.
“No one paid me.” Argyus said, now beginning to get angrier.
"Dooku," I said with finality.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Had to have been Dooku. Has both the wealth, the connections, and the resources to know this ship would transport Gunray and have a means to observe you and see how you don’t desire to serve the Republic, instead desiring a life beyond it.”
Argyus went stock still at my points before nervously laughing, playing it off as if he couldn’t believe the things coming out of my mouth. The various commandos and clones all remained in their spots, all not letting me take even a single step further.
“You're lying.” Ahsoka said, accepting what she had been feeling this entire time.
Teach Ahsoka the Force power Truth Sense! One silver ticket. Use now? Y/N
And I get a reward for it. This was proving to be worthwhile.
[Intermediate Driving]
|Common Skill|
You are a seasoned driver, you are capable of handling a variety of vehicles ranging from bikes and cars to aircraft with familiarity.
With this I could fly off of this ship as a means of escape besides pretending to be a droid survivor or play dead like I was originally intending to do.
“Yes, he is, Ahsoka. Now what do we do with him? Shoot him or arrest him? I am thinking we should kill him, he is too big of a threat for us to capture.” Argyus said, looking towards Ahsoka, completely misunderstanding who she was referring to.
“Not Tobi. You're lying. I can feel it through the Force. Everything Tobi said was the truth. Yet you lied every time you denied what he accused you of.” She said, now sounding more confident and a newfound resolve as she stared at Argyus accusingly.
Argyus looked at her, sounding exasperated. “Ahsoka, I am on the same side as you.”
“There it is again, that feeling I get from you when you deny it. You're panicking.” Ahsoka said, taking a lightsaber in hand and igniting it.
“Commander Ahsoka, are you sure?” The clone commander asked her while he stood by her side, blaster held at the traitor.
“Yes. Argyus, surrender yourself, and if you're as innocent as you say you are, then you have nothing to worry about.” Everyone in the now turned on Argyus, taking some of their blasters off of me and instead swiveling towards Argyus.
Give the man this he was quick on his feet once he realized the jig was up. He turned his blaster on the commandos closest to him. He probably believed he had enough time to shoot them and then deal with me and Ahsoka.
Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t in the mood for any of these commandos to die. My hand had a green ball of fire in it swapping out Observation Haki with Cursed Fire feeling the colorful emotions mostly negative or leaning towards that way fade away with my senses still trained enough to feel Ahsoka and the others.
It was a calculated move but I needed an option that wouldn’t just create an explosion with me this close. Preferably keep Argyus alive, so they could take him prisoner in case he knew things they could use. But I didn’t want to give up the destructive power of a shadow ball, so Observation Haki had to be put on hold for now.
It was tossed right at the man’s head. He turned before he could shoot and dove out of the way of the cursed fire that wouldn’t have done anything to him since his armor would have protected him.
But he didn’t know that and wanted to avoid what had to be a nasty, sickly green ball of fire that bathed the room in a green glow that made the shadows lengthen. Ahsoka tensed up the fear and trepidation expressed on her face plain as day when the fire was formed.
She glanced warily at me, but then she pushed the fear aside when she remembered I was not her enemy after saving her and helping root out a traitor. And so far, besides the beating I gave her, I had not given her any reason to not trust me. At least that she knew of. If she were aware of me fighting both Luminara and Ventress, then I doubt she would be listening as well as she is.
The commandos, after a moment of hesitation looking at the bouncing and rolling ball of fire on the floor, got to work apprehending Argyus. “Get your hands off of me! I am your captain."
“Not anymore, you're not. Until you're cleared of your charges, you are hereby under arrest.” The lead clone interrupted Argyus on whatever pompous rant he was about to have. “I may not know Commander Ahsoka well, but I trust in a Jedi’s senses to know when something is wrong.”
Managed to reveal Argyus was a traitor to the Republic when everything was skewed in his favor. One gold ticket. Use now? Y/N
Seeing my reward for ousting Argyus as a traitor felt so sweet. I just hoped the reward wasn't something useless.
[Adept Stealth]
|Rare Skill|
You are skilled in the way of stealth, you know how to move silently, how to sneak up on people, how to check for traps, you can blend into your surroundings and sneak up on people who know you are coming. You would make Solid Snake proud.
My newly gained knowledge and instincts on stealth were put to work immediately as I moved without drawing attention to myself while they handled Argyus who was doing his absolute best to draw everyone’s attention to him. Nearing the energy barrier with Gunray’s eyes snapping to me realizing he was about to die.
Hand hovering over the control panel about to deactivate the barrier, a blaster primed and humming behind me had me pause.
Chaos Gacha:
[Adept Stealth]
|Rare Skill|
You are skilled in the way of stealth, you know how to move silently, how to sneak up on people, how to check for traps, you can blend into your surroundings and sneak up on people who know you are coming. You would make Solid Snake proud.
[Intermediate Driving]
|Common Skill|
You are a seasoned driver, you are capable of handling a variety of vehicles ranging from bikes and cars to aircraft with familiarity.
