Chapter 96 - Missing Lightsaber

Jedi and clones walked down the stairs, heading to the prison. General Di was in front, lightsaber ready to dispatch the guards. He was followed by Brain and Metal, both who - for Metal discontentment - had small blaster pistols stolen from the guards. Dageer and Commander Keeli were in the back, guarding their rear.

There was a quiet noise in the front, as if something moved at a high speed, and one pig-man dropped to the ground without his head. The cut off head dropped to the ground and started bouncing downstairs in a weary and gross manner.

None of the group paid much attention to it, as it wasn't the first time they saw it since they started their 'mission'.

But who would have expected that at this moment, when they were already near level 13, someone would be using the same path as them? The head hit someone's foot with a squishy sound. Dageer stopped dead on his tracks.

The stairs were deadly quiet. Neither they nor their opponent moved. After a few seconds of stalemate, General Di took a deep breath and jumped a few steps, aiming his lightsaber for the enemy. He almost hit, but when the blue lightsaber was a few centimeters away it stopped. Pale blue light shined on the face of their enemy, revealing a small Togruta's face.

"Ragout! What are you doing here?!"

"Master! I'm sorry, I-I was captured. I'm so sorry, I was returning to my room when someone knocked me unconscious. I am so sorry, I..."

"No. We know you were captured. What I meant was 'what are you doing out of your cell?'. We were coming to get you. How did you escape?"

"This... it wasn't difficult. There were only two guards near my cell, and they were quite easy to manipulate. After that, I sneaked past the other guards."

"General, and... general? It is great that we found you, but we are running out of time."

Commander Keeli stoped them, quite unsure about how to call Ragout. Theoretically, he was considered a jedi, so he should be called general. But that made the chain of command rather awkward because General Di was the master of Ragout, so his rank was even higher. But he brushed that question apart and got to the important part, which was that they should escape.

"Keeli is right. Come on Ragout, let's go."

General Di almost pulled the young padawan, but found unexpected resistance. He looked at the padawan intrigued.

"Master, my lightsaber. I need to take it back."

Dageer thought that the Jedi Master would have been at least annoyed or exasperated at the suggestion of losing precious time to look for a weapon. But he wasn't. General Di actually looked concerned about the lightsaber.

"Do you know where it is?"

"That worm, Jabba, kept it with him when I was brought to his presence. I guess it is still with him."

Dageer had a bad feeling. Judging by how serious General Di was, it looked like he really wanted to go take the lightsaber from Jabba. He couldn't be more right. Without uttering a word, both master and padawan started climbing the stairs.

The clones looked at each other, not sure if they should say something or not. In the end, they decided it was best not to. The lightsaber seemed to have a very special meaning to both master and apprentice, and they already knew how stubborn General Di was.

Their way back was quiet. The only ones they found were those they had already defeated. Soon they reached level 3, where they found the same people still sleeping. The Hutt was still twisted on the bed, his fat tail dropping over the edge. The two Twi'leks that Dageer saw before were also sleeping, although they still had some tears on their faces.

General Di showed the clones the corridor they used the first time, when they had just entered the palace.

"You go back, wait for me at our exit. I will take back your lightsaber, but things will probably get a little heated."

He urged the clones and his padawan, not giving them the chance to complain. It was only when they were a good distance away that they stopped. Knowing that they couldn't go against their orders, Commander Keeli chose the second-best option.

"Dageer, turn around and go back. We will continue, and wait for you and the general at our exit. There is no need to do anything unless General Di get in trouble. If needed, then assist him the best you can."

"Yes, commander."

Dageer immediately turned around and started going back. Behind him, he could still hear Ragout saying he would go too.

"Keeli, why?"

"Our mission was to come here and rescue you. I can't let you go, otherwise, I will be disobeying General Di."

"What?! Letting me go is disobeying, but letting Dageer go isn't? Come on!"

For that, Commander Keeli just kept his mouth shut, and didn't answer. Eventually, when Ragout saw that Dageer was already gone, he gave up, and followed Commander Keeli dejectedly.

...

Dageer arrived at level 3 for the third time in a few hours, and saw something that looked simple, but for some reason he would remember that for the rest of his life.

General Di was facing Jabba the Hutt, who wasn't sleeping anymore. Their faces were centimeters away from each other. Despite that, the Hutt didn't try to call his guards or do anything. In fact, he hasn't spoken a word, neither tried to wake up the dozens of sleeping bounty hunters. The reason for that was the lightsaber that was between his and General Di's face.

The small eyes of the Hutt were squinted so hard that they were almost closed, and he was sweating profusely. It was possible to see the fear in his face. Dageer couldn't see General Di's face because he had his back turned to him, but he appeared to be talking.

Jabba's face twisted, and he used his worm-like tail to grab something behind him. When he presented it, General Di used the Force to pick up the lightsaber and put it on his belt. After that he said something else, and retreated slowly, always facing the Hutt.