Capítulo 9: Padawan?
Since his conversation with Yoda, 1 hour passed, and he was currently leading the thousands of clones behind him toward the droid factory that could be seen in the far distance.
Anakin seems to have gone solo ahead, while Commander Zephyr was called away somewhere.
Silas himself watched as clone troopers rushed past him and advanced at a good pace.
But rather than being happy about the current situation, his figure halted amidst the chaos as his face adjourned a cold expression.
'This isn't good enough...'
He noticed that while they were saving their soldiers lives and were moving at a constant pace forward, the enemy was escaping much faster…
'At the pace we're going, it might take us over 12 hours to finally reach them and they'll be mostly gone.'
But his thoughts were cut off as he sensed a beam from behind him.
He slightly tilted his head to the right and his eyes narrowed once noticing it was a blue beam that flew past him.
Silas then turned around and locked eyes on a certain yellow striped clone, "Are you serious?"
The clone quickly rushed toward him with raised hands, "Sorry sir! A rookie clones shot seemed to have gone astray!"
Silas didn't say anything as he realized this man was a commander, "Do you have a name commander?"
"It's Cody sir!"
He silently smiled as he recognized the man, "I'll forgive your subordinate, but only on one condition."
Commander Cody seemed slightly confused as he asked, "What can I do for you sir?"
"Have you met the General you serve?" Silas asked.
Commander Cody shook his head, "No I haven't met General Kenobi yet."
Silas nodded contently as he ignored all the chaos around him and put a hand on Cody's shoulder, "From now on your going to be a Commander of the 1st Legion." Silas abruptly declared.
Commander Cody was speechless as he stared in surprised toward the General.
Seemingly oblivious to his stupor, Silas sent out orders, "Now keep it moving Commander!"
Cody quickly broke out of his stupor as he nodded, "Yes sir!" And continued advancing forward with everyone else, as Silas didn't move while other ran past him.
He was about to continue advancing, until sensing a Gunship land behind him as he turned around.
Stepping out the Gunship was Yoda and Ashoka following behind him, as they approached.
"General Raven, speak to you, I must." Yoda remarked.
"With all due respect Master Yoda, I don't think now is the best time to talk." Silas replied as he glanced around at the mayhem.
Yoda shook his head, "Quick it will be."
Silas simply nodded his head in understanding.
"Darkness within you, I sense, but light is also present... Teach you of the Jedi ways, I wish to do." Yoda seemingly offered as he curiously gazed up at Silas with his cane in hand.
Silas didn't hesitate as he responded, "No can do Master Yoda, I've been ordered to remain as a General directly under the Republic only, by the Chancellor himself."
Yoda slightly knitted his brows but nodded, "I see... Expected this, I have."
Silas seemed confused as Yoda seemed to have another offer.
Yoda then spoke once again, "Become Padawan Tano's master, will you?"
Silas suspiciously narrowed his eyes on Yoda's figure, he knew there was more to this than it seemed, and becoming a teacher wasn't really on his bucket list.
He then looked toward Ashoka, who surprisingly had a hopeful expression, 'She doesn't actually want to be my student, does she?'
As Silas was about to reply, his comlink started beeping red as he glanced down at it, before pressing it.
Commander Zephyr's voice seemed urgent as he shouted, "Sir! We need help! We're under the catacombs by the previous bomb-" The transmission then cut off before he could even finish.
Silas furrowed his brows in confusion, he never ordered Commander Zephyr to go down into the catacombs... The only conclusion could be someone else ordered him.
But nonetheless, Silas shook his head, coming back to reality, "Sorry Master Yoda, but it seems I'm needed elsewhere. Can we continue this conversation later?"
Once Yoda nodded in agreement, Silas calmly walked toward the landed Gunship behind them, before coming to a stop, as he glanced back, seemingly waiting for something.
"Aren't you bored? Are you coming or not Ashoka?"
Ashoka's eyes widened in surprise, before blossoming into a cheerful smile.
"Really!?"
Silas lightly laughed at her enthusiasm, "Your probably bored out of your mind! So hurry it up!" He then swiftly hopped in the Gunship.
"Finally! I thought I was going to die of boredom!" She exclaimed as she ran after him and hopped in the Gunship beside him.
"Bye Master Yoda!"
Yoda's expression was as ever calm, as he watched the two take his Gunship and fly off into the distance.
"Much too reckless, they are."
****
After a few minutes of riding in the Gunship, Silas and Ashoka finally felt themselves landing.
"Thanks for bringing me here master!" Ashoka happily remarked as they hopped out the Gunship.
"I never said I'd be your master." Silas plainly responds with a small smile under his helmet.
They then both started to jog as they entered a dark cave while continuing their conversation.
"But Master Yoda said he assigned you and Master Skywalker as my masters!" She retorted from behind his running figure.
Silas came to a sudden stop as he turned around, "What did you say?"
Ashoka didn't waver as she repeated her words, "I said you and Master Skywalker were appointed as my two masters! So like it or not, we're stuck together!"
Silas scoffed at her childish tone, before an amused smile appeared under his golden visor.
"So that's what he's playing at..." He muttered calmly.
"What are you talking about?" Ashoka asked in apparent confusion, but before she could get any answers, Silas started running again.
"Wait for me!" She hurriedly called out from behind, trying to follow him in the dark narrow tunnels.
Silas ignored her while running faster, he now realized what Yoda was doing.
'He's most likely trying to keep me tethered to the Jedi by igniting some sort of friendship/kinship with my so-called Jedi Padawan, even though Jedi aren't supposed to endorse in such emotions, but I guess I'm not a Jedi... And he most likely partnered me with Anakin, in order to use him to keep an eye on me, or maybe use even Obi-Wan.' He mused inwardly as he hopped over a boulder, continuing to disregard Ashoka's shouts from behind.
'Yoda most likely senses I'm not a bad person, so he knows I wouldn't harm a Padawan, but must believe I can't be trusted... I suppose it's similar to Anakin's situation, unlike Anakin though, I don't really care much.'
Silas knew he could deny such a proposal, but found such a offer beneficial to him. He could become more attuned with the Force, by learning more from Anakin or Obi-Wan, and would get the Jedi to drop their guard around him over time as they trust him more.
He could only presume he could teach Ashoka more about battle strategy and train her lightsaber skills, as he himself was highly skilled at it.
But he broke out of his thoughts as he stopped running and felt fighting ahead of him, while also seeing light at the end of his dark tunnel.
"Master wait!"
Ashoka finally caught up to him as she stopped beside him, while breathing heavily.
"*Huff**Huff* Did you really have to run that fast?" She exasperatedly questioned while leaning over on her knees.
Silas glanced at her with disapproval, "Were you taking your time because you don't see the clone troopers as living beings?"
"I m-mean, weren't they bred for battle?"
"What about me?" Silas suddenly asked.
"B-But your different master!-"
He raised his hand, insinuating that she should stop, "Listen Ashoka, I was born and bred, just like any other clone trooper, my training was just a bit harder... You need to come to understand that clones are living beings with free wills of their own." He then mumbled, "We're simply slaves to the Republic..."
"Do you understand?"
Ashoka seemed ashamed as her eyes turned down, "I understand."
Silas didn't delay any longer as he could hear the sounds of blaster shots ahead.
Running ahead with Ashoka following behind him, cracks of the sun shined down on them as they arrive in a large catacomb of a room with pillars everywhere.
Luckily Commander Zephyr still had his tracker on so they could track his location here easily.
Silas then noticed dozens of clones behind pillars as they shot back at the geonosians on the other side, who were also hiding behind pillars.
But what caught Silas's attention were the countless clone bodies sprawled out all over the cave, causing him to sigh.
"Lets go!" He proclaimed as he rushed forward while taking out his lightsabers from both sides as he connected them together, causing them to ignite.
Ashoka running behind him, watched him spin his double bladed saber with starry eyes.
Silas himself didn't hesitate as he jumped in the center of the battlefield of flying beams, and advanced forward spinning his sabers menacingly, blocking all the red beams.
He sped forward and slashed down any geonosian he saw that was hiding behind a pillar of earth.
Pew!
Pew!
Zoom!
Silas's saber shun brightly as he deflected the beams with fluid movements, before jumping up and bringing his saber crashing down on another geonosian.
Effectively splitting them in half.
Ashoka followed right behind him as she also didn't hesitate to kill her opponents with her green lightsaber.
A few blue beams would fly past them from the clones behind them, assisting their victory, as not even a few minutes later, all the geonosians were exterminated.
Silas and Ashoka then disengaged their lightsabers as they regrouped with the dozens amount of clones left in the center of the catacombs.
"Thank you for saving us sir." Commander Zephyr thanked as he stood face to face with Silas, it seemed he had an injured leg, but seemed fine nonetheless.
The other clones nodded in agreement, Silas could practically feel their grateful gazes behind their helmets.
He just nodded, "Of course, we never leave a man behind."
Ashoka interjected with a whine, "What about me!? I also did some saving!"
The clones chuckled as Commander Zephyr spoke on their behalf, "We also appreciate you youngling."
As Ashoka was about to complain about the nickname, Silas cut her off.
"Why are you down here? I never gave any orders to clear out the catacombs after the bombs went off." He commented with a frown.
"General Windu told us to clear out the tunnels of any more enemies." Commander Zephyr explained.
Silas nodded in understanding before saying, "But you guys should have been able to take out the geonosians pretty easily when this room is filled with light. What happened?"
Commander Zephyr exhaled lightly as he replied, "General Windu said we should double check if certain bugs were enemies or not, because he didn't want us to indiscriminately attack any geonosian just in case they were innocent and give them a chance to surrender... "
"But because of that, we were forced to hesitate as we attempted to check if the enemy was friendly and they obviously took advantage of that and completely started crushing our forces."
Silas's eyes darkened as the Commander finished his explanation, he explicitly told all the clones to show no mercy because they wouldn't do the same, but it seems his order were overridden since he wasn't present.
But before he could say anything, his eyes widened as he sensed dozens to maybe even hundreds of geonosians rushing in their direction.
"Guys run!" Silas shouted as everyone noticed that not even a few seconds later, countless numbers of geonosians flooded the catacomb from the opposite side.
"Go! Go! Me and Ashoka will cover you while you guys take the injured!" Silas ordered as he and Ashoka quickly re-ignited their sabers and slowly walked backward while deflecting all the beams, taking cover behind rocks if they could.
The clones behind them rushed toward the exit, but Silas noticed the geonosians started aiming above the exit, seemingly trying to block them in here.
"Ashoka run now!"
But before they could run, he noticed a red beam that would break her defense, and he wasn't close enough to block it.
'Damn it!' He cursed inwardly, and as if time slowed down, he was unsure what to do as he watched the red beam slowly approach her figure, inches before her fear-stricken face.
As if on instinct, he instantly stretched his hand forward toward the beam from a distance.
Ashoka's eyes could only widen as a red beam stopped mid-air, only inches from her wide eyes.
Silas himself was surprised, but he didn't waste time as he yelled.
"Idiot run!"
Ashoka broke out of her stupor as she jumped over a large rock for cover, before continuing to run toward the clones who approached the exit.
She easily caught up with them as she helped them carry some injured soldiers with the force.
Stray red beams would fly past them, but somehow none would hit them as Silas was distracting them and taking all the fire onto himself, he ducked and weaved, moving as much as he could between all the rocks and pillars while shooting his blaster occasionally.
But as the group of clones and Ashoka were only a few meters away, the top of the exit started to crumbled as rocks came crashing down in front of them.
However no sound was made as they didn't hit the floor and levitated in the air, right above their exit.
"What!?" Ashoka was shocked as she turned around and watched who she called master, right behind them, holding up all the rocks with both his hands.
"Move it soldiers! You too Ashoka!" Silas shouted out in a strain as he was holding the dozens of heavy rocks.
They only had 15 seconds, as he used one powerful force push right before this against the enemies, in order to assist them.
Ashoka and the dozens of clones mixed with injured ones, turned around and rushed through the narrow exit.
Ashoka then stayed outside the exit as she hurried soldiers to run through, but a few seconds later, the geonosians reappeared as a wave of red beams came at them.
Notwithstanding, she would protect the clones exiting as she waved her green lightsaber skillfully, deflecting as many beams as she could in order to save as many clones, she wouldn't disappoint her new master again.
But her eyes widened as she realized that Silas was vulnerable currently and couldn't defend his back as he was carrying the rocks above them.
"I'm coming Master!-"
But she was cut off as Silas commanded, "Save Commander Zephyr and go!"
She was slightly confused until realizing the Commander also stayed back with her, making sure the last clone got in, except now he was crawling on the ground as his leg injury seemed to have worsened.
Ashoka's eyes were conflicted as she saw her new Master being riddled with beams from behind, before glancing back toward the struggling clone Commander.
Nonetheless she followed his orders as Commander Zephyr levitated into the exit as the rocks finally came crashing down behind him.
Darkness engulfed them as Ashoka instantly fell to the ground with eyes filled with dread.
"I failed him..."
But suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, "Come on get up! We need to call reinforcements to save General Raven! It seems they blocked communications, but if we can make it outside, we should be fine to make a call." Commander Zephyr didn't give up hope as he was being held up by two other clones.
"B-But we saw him being riddled with blaster shots." Ashoka looked up with hope, no it was as if she was looking for any glimmer of hope.
"I've heard the General's armor is made up of a different metal, called Beskar, it's something that's practically impenetrable, that means he most likely survived and is currently fighting as best as he can by himself! Not unless we get more back-up! Now get up!" Commander Zephyr raised his voice, at this point all he felt was shame, he was of no use to his general, but no he wouldn't give up, that wasn't how clones were created.
Ashoka stood up as her eyes turned determined, "Your right! Let's go!"
Without even waiting she ran ahead of everyone else, running faster and faster, to her utmost limit, disappearing from their vision.
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