The Number Lads on the Lam
Continuing the Wrong Jedi Arc!! Elevensies has made some questionable decisions, but Sixes seems to be helping? Will it be enough? I don't know (I know) but you all get to meet the Noodle Grannies!!! Or... one of them!!! Once again, they are OCs created by myself and my dear friend @23-bears to supplement our little corner of Star Wars. They are wonderful, please enjoy them.
Words: ~4.5K
Warnings: None, just suspense
Link to Master List of chapters!
Elevensies lowered his arm after sending their coordinates to the commander. He sat back against the wall next to Commander Tano and breathed out a sigh of relief. They could stay put for now. They’d found an old street vendor’s cart in an alley on the way to Little Sriluur, and it was big enough to hide them both if they put it between them and the street.
“Did he say who was picking us up?” she asked.
“Um, he said a very tall togruta woman named Saleha,” he answered. “That’s all I got.”
The commander seemed ot relax a little. “Togruta, huh? Okay…”
They sat in silence for a while before he asked, “What happened to you? In the base?”
She shook her head, curling up a little tighter where she sat. She looked so young… not much younger than Elevensies was—physically anyway. “I… don’t know. I didn’t do any of it, though! I didn’t kill that prisoner. Or those clones…”
“Then who did, do you think?”
She signed. “I’m not sure. They think I choked her–the prisoner, Letta. But she didn’t act like that! You know?” She looked at him. He shrugged. “She didn’t… when you’re choking, all your brain can do is try to free you, like grabbing at your throat, even when there’s nothing there, and… she never did that. She grabbed her chest, like… like…” She demonstrated, still trying to find the words she wanted.
“Like cardiac arrest?” he offered. It was the only reason he could remember learning that might make someone grab at their chest like that.
Tano’s face lit up. “Yes! Like that!” Then she slumped again. “Not like it’ll help. It’s still just speculation. I don’t even know who dropped that keycard outside my cell if it wasn’t my Master. You all have to carry one, right?”
“Not all of us have access to the cells with them, though,” he said. “Only if you’re a certain rank of experience. I’m new, so I won’t have that for a while yet. But someone more experienced inside the base would have access to all the cells.”
The commander nodded, thinking. Her blue eyes were fixed on a spot on the ground in front of her. “And… do you all have to clock in? So they know who’s where and when?”
He held up his left arm. “Our vambraces all have a specific code readout on scanners throughout the base. Everyone has them, but ours are used to track us.”
She nodded again, raising a hand to drum her fingers on her chin. “So… if someone stole armor–or just the bracer, even, they could slip in undetected.”
Elevensies stared at her, a chill racing down his spine at the prospect of an intruder on the RMB. “Ye-yeah,” he said, forcing his voice to cooperate. “I guess that’s true.”
Commander Tano raised her own comm, dialing a frequency quickly. “Barriss?” she asked.
“Ahsoka!” a young, high-toned voice answered, clearly relieved. “It’s so good to hear your voice. Are you alright?”
“Yes, for now. Listen, I need you to see if there’s been any suspicious activity on the RMB before I was detained. If Anakin didn’t drop that keycard for me, then there’s someone else in that base working against me.”
“Ahsoka, I don’t think–”
“And see if you can find where Letta got those nanodroids.”
Barriss sighed. “Alright. I’ll see what I can find. Stay safe. Oh, and try not to contact me on Republic channels–it’s too dangerous.” The comm went dark.
Elevensies racked his brain, trying to figure out why that named sounded so familiar. Barriss… Finally, he turned to Commander Tano. “Sorry if this is overstepping, ma’am,” he said, “but I’ve heard that name Barriss before. Who is that?”
“Barriss Offee,” the commander answered. “She’s a Padawan, like me. She’s the commander of the forty-first, under Master Luminara Unduli.” When none of those facts seemed to help, she added, “She’s Mirialan? Diamond tattoos on her face? Always keeps her head covered?”
“Oh!” Elevensies said, then clapped a hand over his mouth when he remembered they were supposed to be hiding. “Yeah,” he said, lowing his voice. “I remember her. She’s been visiting the RMB a lot lately, talking to some of the detainees, I think.”
The commander tilted her head at him, but had no time to reply. A siren sounded nearby–too close for comfort, and she bolted to her feet. “Stay here, I’ll go look.” She crept forward, peering around the cart towards the street. “Oh, great,” she muttered, and retreated. “C’mon. The civilian police are after us too, and if they’re involved, it won’t take long for anyone else with an interest in Republic credit to jump onboard too.”
Elevensies put his helmet back on and grabbed his blaster. “There’s a bounty on us?” he hissed. Oh he was so getting disciplinary actions after this was all over.
“Yeah, a sizeable one. I saw a holo of it across the street, let’s move.”
They took off at a reasonable jog, not wanting to tire themselves out more than they already were. Genetically enhanced stamina could only do so much, after all. When they made it to the end of the alley, he let the commander poke her head out, checking to see if they were in the clear. She beckoned to him behind her, and they slipped out, jogging along the dark walkway. Most people down here didn’t want to get involved in anything remotely suspicious, so they swerved to avoid them for the most part. They were still heading for Little Sriluur, where Commander Sixes had directed them, although it would take a while to get there at this rate.
A sudden burst of light and noise accompanied the arrival of a police speeder ahead of them, lights on and sirens blaring. He and Commander Tano froze, then turned right back around and ran.
They couldn’t outrun a speeder–even a Jedi couldn’t do that forever, but they would sure try.
Without warning, a second speeder arrived, barreling down the skylane towards the police. What looked like a giant stun ring shot out from its nose and hit the police speeder dead-on. The police vehicle shuddered, then promptly fell out of the sky, the sirens and lights cutting off abruptly as it plummeted.
He and the commander had frozen again.
The new speeder was all black, but they got a glimpse of a beautiful bird-like creature painted on its top as it turned to pull up beside them. The window rolled down, and a togruta woman leaned over the passenger seat to look at them.
“Hello, my dears,” she said. “I’m Saleha. Sixes said you needed help?”
“Yes, ma’am!” he replied, mainly on reflex.
“Well, get in. The police will have their comms working in no time, and after that, this place will be swarming.”
Commander Tano wasted no time hopping into the passenger seat, and Elevensies followed suit, almost falling into the backseat as Saleha started flying before he was fully situated.
“Thank you so much, Saleha,” Commander Tano said. “My name is Ahsoka Tano. That’s Elevensies.”
The older woman nodded, glancing up in the mirror at Elevensies. “You are very trusting, Ahsoka. Luckily, that is not be a bad thing right now.” Now they were relatively safe, Elevensies took the time to assess their rescuer.
She was large, although it was difficult to see how tall she truly was when they were all in the speeder. Her skin was a warm red-orange, and her montrals and lekku were striped a rich fuschia color. Her hands gripping the steering apparatus were strong, but wrinkled and lined, and covered in gold rings and bracelets. In the lights as they flew, several piercings stood out as they glinted, including some in her lekku, which… he had not thought possible. He also recognized the traditional headband of teeth most togruta wore, including Commander Tano.
“You wear nice trophies, Ahsoka,” Saleha remarked, as if she had overheard his train of thought. “You must be quite the little warrior.”
Commander Tano reached up to brush her fingers over the teeth. “Thank you. I… guess I am, huh?”
“Most Jedi are, I’m told,” Saleha said. She had a low voice, but it was soothing. “But what could you have done to have the entire Guard coming after you?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. “I… they think I killed people. A lot of people. And I wouldn’t! I couldn’t! It is not the Jedi way to kill without reason or provocation, or without seeking out every possible way around it.”
The old togruta nodded, taking a turn a little sharply. They were into Little Sriluur now, he recognized the disproportionate numbers of weequay on the streets. “I believe you,” Saleha said. “You are a warrior, not a killer.”
“You just met–”
“I am a spectacular judge of character,” she said, cutting off the protest. “And I have been doing it for a very long time.”
The commander couldn’t argue with that, so she sat back in her seat, folding her arms. Saleha looked up in the mirror at Elevensies.
“You would not happen to be part of that delightful little group of clone troopers Sixes got dragged into?” she asked, a smile on her face.
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I’m number one.”
“Very good. I’m glad to meet you.”
They rode in silence for a few more minutes, then the speeder slowed and finally just hovered in the air while a door in the side of a building opened for them. They pulled into the space, the speeder slowly came down onto a series of supports made for it, and Saleha shut it off.
“There we are, my dears,” she said. “Welcome to Sun's Noodle Bar.”
They got out and followed her through a door into the main part of the building, arriving first in a stairway. Saleha started downwards, holding the railing always, and they followed her still.
“This is my restaurant,” she explained. “My wife and I own it, she’s upstairs. But down here…” She paused, entering an access code for a door at the bottom of the stairs. “Here is the Clubhouse.”
They followed the towering woman (now Elevensies could tell she was about seven feet tall not including the horns) into a short hallway, then into a cozy sitting room. The walls were a warm tan color, a string of mismatched lights hung over one wall, and a massive couch and pair of arm chairs seemed to be calling out to his aching feet. There was a small kitchen to their right as they entered, spotlessly clean, and a massive slyyyg plush sat in the far corner, next to a round bean bag chair. A pair of tooka cats, one brown and striped, one black, were curled up on the chair.
“You must try to keep this place a secret,” Saleha said, folding her hands. “The commanders would be most upset if they thought everyone knew about their little safe haven.”
Commander Tano looked at him, and he shrugged. “Which commanders?” she asked.
“Oh, the commanders who stay here,” the woman answered. “Nero, Bacara, Sixes, and Thire.”
Elevensies almost choked on his next breath. “Commander Thire?” Oh, he was so dead after all of this. When Saleha looked at him, puzzled, he managed, “He’s… he’s my commander…”
“Well, then we’ll make extra sure not to tell anyone,” Commander Tano said, putting a hand on his shoulder bell. “Right?”
“Yep,” he agreed weakly.
Another door on the far side of the room opened suddenly, and a pair of troopers burst in. The universe must be playing tricks on him, Elevensies thought, because this just was not fair.
It was Commander Thire. Because of course it was him. It was Commander Thire and a 104th trooper Elevensies thought he should recognize, but all his mental energy was currently being put towards not keeling over.
“Okay, what the ever-loving kriff is Sixes playing at?” his commander demanded as soon as the door was closed behind them. The outburst made the tookas jump to their spindly legs and fluff their tails. The brown one bolted behind the bean bag chair, while the black one tried to burrow deeper into it.
“Hello to you, too, Thire,” Saleha said stiffly, clearly unhappy with his attitude.
Commander Thire tore his helmet off, forced a smile, and said, “Hi, Saleha, it’s nice to see you. Excuse me, I’m in a crisis.” Then he turned on Elevensies, pointing. “You. You are an idiot.”
“I am aware of that, sir,” he replied quietly.
“He’s helping me!” Commander Tano said, rising to his defense for some unknown reason. “It’s more than anyone else has done so far.”
“That is because you are wanted on suspicion of bombing the Temple, murdering a suspect in Republic custody, killing at least five clones, and resisting arrest when we attempted to detain you, Commander!”
“I didn’t hurt anyone!” she shot back.
Commander Thire took a step towards her. “And how is anyone supposed to believe that when the first thing you did was break out of your jail cell and run?” Elevensies had never seen him this angry.
“Thire!” Saleha’s low voice boomed when she put it to good use. The commanders both tensed, but they did shut up. “Thire, sit down,” she told him, pointing to one of the armchairs. “Ahsoka, sit down.” She pointed to the couch. “Be civilized.”
The Jedi and clone commanders eyed each other warily, but they followed her directions. Elevensies was liking and respecting this Saleha woman more and more the longer he knew her.
“Elevensies,” she said, “take a seat as well.” She gestured to three barstools that stood near the kitchen counter. “And you, my dear, I’m afraid I didn’t get your name.” She was looking at the 104th trooper.
The trooper took his helmet off. “Uh, it’s Loops, ma’am, don’t worry about it.”
Elevensies took his own helmet off, realizing he hadn’t yet, and offered a smile as Loops came over to join him on the barstools. “What are you doing here?” he whispered, watching Saleha take a seat in the largest armchair and start a dialogue between the two commanders.
“Commander Thire grabbed me. Made some excuse to Commander Wolffe, and just grabbed me.”
“How did he know about all this?”
“The commander told him, I guess?” Loops hazarded. It was understood amongst the Numbers that any vague reference to “the commander” was to Commander Sixes.
Elevensies nodded. “Must be. I commed him first thing, I didn’t know what to do.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t either if I suddenly decided to help a fugitive.”
He shrank into his armor a bit. “Yeah… pretty stupid, huh?”
Loops made a slight face. “I mean… it’s not the smartest thing I’ve ever heard someone do, no. But, I bet Sevenset’ll get a kick out of it. Once no one’s dead.”
“Yeah,” he agreed weakly. He was exhausted, but the conversation in front of him made it impossible to rest his eyes. There was too much to learn.
The conversation had already started by the time he tuned back in. Commander Tano had her arms crossed and was glaring at the commander in the chair. Said commander was leaning forward, one hand planted firmly on the arm of his chair, leaving the other free to gesture as he needed.
“What do you mean, an intruder in the base?” Commander Thire demanded.
“I mean it’s not hard to steal armor if you’re good enough,” the young commander explained. “Elevensies told me that your vambraces work to track an individual signal throughout the base. Well, if someone had stolen a vambrace or an entire suit of armor, they could walk around undetected as an intruder, couldn’t they?”
Elevensies curled in on himself when his commander glared at him. But, Saleha raised an eyebrow at him, and he didn’t say anything. He turned back to Tano. “Theoretically, yes, that is possible,” he said, like the act of agreeing with her was physically straining.
“And Anakin told me he didn’t drop that access card in front of my cell,” she furthered, lifting her chin. “Commander Fox never even let him in to see me. So who was helping me?”
“Yes, who was, ma’am?” Commander Thire shot back.
“I don’t know!”
Saleha cleared her throat, and they both relented slightly, leaning back a little. “Ahsoka is telling the truth, Thire. You can see that, yes?”
“She’s a Jedi, she can say whatever–”
“I can tell she is telling the truth!” the old togruta cut him off viciously. “I think four decades of work in the criminal systems of Coruscant gives me slightly more experience than you, does it not, Thire?”
Commander Thire pressed his lips together, a flicker of something not angry appearing in his face before he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Saleha nodded. She looked back to the Jedi. “Is there anything else you want to tell us about this investigation?”
She opened her mouth, closed it, then sat up again. “Yes. Elevensies mentioned that Barriss Offee had been visiting the cells on the RMB frequently over the past few days, and that’s been bothering me.”
“Bothering you how?” Commander Thire asked.
“Well, Barriss and I have known each other for years, and she’d told me before I left for Cato Nemoidia that she was going to start taking more shifts in the Halls of Healing.”
“And?”
“I don’t know, but something is off,” the young commander said. “I can feel it. And that means something!” There was a short silence before Commander Tano shifted in her seat and asked, “So… will you help me?”
The commander looked at her, his temper quieter from earlier, but still very present. Then he looked over at Saleha, who was still looking at him with great expectation, and eventually, he sighed, bringing both hands up to rub his eyes. “Maker help me, Sixes is never gonna let me hear the end of this,” he muttered. Then he looked up. “Fine. Fine, I’ll… I’ll keep the Guard off your head tails as best as I can.”
Saleha’s face softened. “And I will do what I can as a citizen of the Republic fully aware of my rights to keep them out of this property, should they realize you’re here,” she said.
“Thank you,” Commander Tano said. “All of you,” she added, glancing over to where Elevensies and Loops sat on their stools.
That brought Commander Thire’s attention over to him. He blinked at him, and Elevensies started bracing for a tirade, but then he recognized it wasn’t anger on his face. He wasn’t sure what it was.
“Elevens, you deactivated the locator in your belt, right?”
Shit.
Saleha stood up, turning to him. “You have a locator?”
He nodded, his mouth gone dry, his heart pounding in his ears. He gripped his helmet tighter in his lap.
“Is it off?” his commander asked, standing as well.
He shook his head once, trying very hard to breathe evenly. He had just messed everything up, hadn’t he? He hadn’t even thought to deactivate the locator because he’d never needed to do that before! His CO’s had always stressed to them to keep them on, no matter what, so they could be found on patrol. Now they were all going to get in trouble, and it was all because–
A gentle hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his spiraling thoughts. It was Loops.
“Hey, you still with us?” he asked quietly. “Breathe.”
Had he stopped breathing? He let out his breath, then took another too quickly. He might have stopped.
“You’re fine, kid,” Commander Thire said. “We’ll deal with it. Just get up and turn around so I can deactivate it, okay?”
The orders were welcome. He could follow them without thinking too much. He slid off the stool, still clutching his helmet, and turned his back, allowing his commander access to the small cylinder at the back of his belt.
Behind him, he heard Saleha’s low voice. “Ahsoka? Come with me. Chances are they will be here sooner than later, and stalling is a wonderful tactic.” They left the room, Saleha’s jewelry jingling.
“All set.”
He turned back around to face his commander. “Sorry, sir,” he offered meekly.
The commander sighed again, putting one hand on his hip and rubbing his forehead with the other. “You’re lucky Sixes likes you, kid. And you’re lucky Sixes and I know Saleha. Keep that in mind.”
He nodded.
Commander Thire tipped his head towards the bean bag chair in the corner, still supporting one of the tookas. “Rest your eyes for a bit, trooper. It’s been a long night, and it’s not getting any shorter.”
“Yessir,” he said, trying to hide his utter relief at the prospect of rest. “What about the uh…” He pointed to the black lump of cat.
“Oh, that’s just Ballistic Noodles.” He walked over to the blob of a chair, holding his gloved hand out to the cat. Loops and Elevensies followed, mostly out of pure curiosity. “She’s fine, it's Sixes' little menace you wanna watch out for,” the commander said as the cat began rubbing her face against his hand. “C’mon, Bella,” he said, reaching down and scooping the cat out of the chair into his arms, holding her like one might a small baby.
The cat settled immediately, a quiet rumble emanating from her. Elevensies raised a hand, then stopped, looking to the commander. He nodded encouragingly, and he offered his hand to the creature. She sniffed it delicately, then nudged it gently.
“Have a seat,” Commander Thire told him.
Elevensies did so, sinking into the chair a bit further than expected. He struggled to get into a comfortable position, but he found one. The brown cat emerged from behind the chair, looking disgruntled its hideout had been compromised. It trotted across the room to the couch and hopped onto it, curling up at one end.
“Put your helmet down.”
He was a little confused, but he did so, letting it fall a short distance to the rug. Then, to his surprise, the commander stepped up and carefully lowered the black tooka cat onto him. He sort of froze, completely unsure of what to do. The cat rumbled on, rubbing her cheeks against his chest plate as she walked all over him, her little claws clicking on the plastoid. Eventually, she settled next to him, her back end on the bean bag, and her front end on his lap, her scaly toes curling and uncurling rhythmically.
“She’ll keep you there for a while,” the commander said. “Loops, keep ‘im company, make sure he gets some rest.”
Loops sat down on the rug next to him, also reaching out and letting Ballistic sniff him. “Will do, sir.”
They sat in silence for a while, Ballistic rumbling away on his lap. Loops had moved on to scratching the top of her wide head between her ears, but Elevensies was still rather uncertain what to do with this animal on him. He did like it, though. Her rumbling was soothing, and the bean bag was very comfortable, even in armor. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and he felt his head nodding. As much as he tried to shake off encroaching sleep, he knew it was pointless. The commander had told him to get some rest… He was just following orders….
-scene break-
Elevensies awoke some unknown amount of time later, and Bella was still curled up in his lap, although she had switched sides. She was awake like him, and looking over to the doorway, where Saleha stood, talking very firmly to someone there.
“No, I am certain your missing Padawan is not in my home or my place of business,” she said. “And you have no jurisdiction to enter either, Master Jedi.”
He tensed, glancing around in a hurry, and finding Loops kneeling beside him. Had he moved at all?
Loops put a finger over his lips, then leaned over to whisper. “Skywalker’s here,” he said. “But he’s not getting past Saleha without her permission. Commander Thire went to circle around and meet them outside, throw them off the scent.”
Elevensies nodded. They couldn’t be seen from outside the door in this corner, and that made him feel much better. Last he recalled, Commander Fox and Captain Rex were with Skywalker, and he didn’t want to see either of them right now. Especially Commander Fox…
“So we just stay here?” he whispered back.
Loops nodded, reaching over to stroke Bella’s head. She stretched up into it, beginning to rumble again.
“The only other togruta in this building, aside from whatever customers are upstairs,” Saleha went on, “would be my grandchild Ashla, who is staying with me and my wife while she completes her study abroad courses here on Coruscant.”
The only thing audible from Skywalker’s response was, “Are you seriously–” and then he lowered his voice again. There was a jumble of voices outside that sounded like clones after that, which probably meant Commander Thire had arrived.
At any rate, Saleha gave a brief, “Good night, gentlemen,” before letting the door slide closed. She turned to the two of them. “They have gone for now. Loops, would you please check on Ahsoka?”
“Of course,” Loops answered, standing up and walking away towards the hallway from which Elevensies had first entered.
“Are you feeling better after your nap?” Saleha asked him, a quiet smile on her face.
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
Loops reappeared in the doorway. “Ma’am? We have a problem. The commander… isn’t here.”
-scene break-
high fives: why’d she have to be skywalker’s padawan
high fives: ahsoka is WAY too good at running away from the consequences of her actions
CrispyDomino: wish she could teach you a few things?
high fives: YOU ARE LITERALLY LOOKING FOR HER WITH ME SHUT THE HELL UP
RedBoiiiii: she’s still in the wind??? seriously????
Double Trouble: impressive!!
Loopy: oh, she’s so good at this because she’s skywalker’s padawan??
Loopy: is that who I need to curse??
#1 Boy: Hey trees?
high fives: aren’t you both supposed to be searching for her??
Loopy: yeah we are
Leafs: Elevensies?
Loopy: What, we can’t text and run at the same time?
#1 Boy: has commander offee been with your legion recently?
Leafs: No, Commander Offee is studying at the Temple currently, why?
#1 Boy: oh, I was just curious! ^_^
#1 Boy: she’s been visiting the RMB a lot lately, and I guess she’s friends with Tano?
d0nut man: does skywalker train his padawan to be the opposite of a law-abiding citizen?
CrispyDomino: i can neither confirm or deny that
high fives: yes
CrispyDomino: well then
Double Trouble: you know… i’ve heard that line of Jedi called the Disaster Lineage
RedBoiiii: ACCURATE!!!!
high fives: I HATE HOW ACCURATE IT IS
And thus the story continues.... I hope Saleha and Ballistic Noodles amused people lol @mercurydancer @23-bears @theultimatesandwich @darth-void @nintendolover13 @rndmpeep If you want to be tagged, let me know! Thanks for reading!
10 notes
·
View notes