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Jaster woke up brutally at the sound of flesh hitting metal. Faking unconscious he continued to breath deeply, waiting for the sounds of leaving footsteps. He used the opportunity to try and understand his situation better, his body felt groggy, sluggish, the result of the drugs he had been injected with certainly. His last memories were of his solo mission on Korda… the mission! It must have been a trap. And Montross had been the one liaising between him and the client, that aruetyc hut'uun. His beskar'gam had obviously been taken off as he only felt his flight suit on his body. His blasters too had been taken away and Jaster mentally cursed at the idea of those aruetiise putting their disgusting hands over his belongings.
Opening his eyes to a slit, the mandalorian took in his surroundings. He was locked up in some kind of cell in what seems to be a ship, according to the soft noises of a spaceship motor. The cell was made fully of metal, with old-fashioned barred doors and walls. There were other cells next to his own, and in one of them the young man who had woken him up after being thrown inside.
From what Jaster could see the young male had short ginger hair and porcelain skin covered in freckles, the mole on his forehead and the chin dimple gave his delicate face a slightly feminine look which seemed confirmed by the lithe build and visibly tiny hands. As he was observing the other discreetly, his head moved making fall over his shoulder a thin braid decorated with ribbons and carved beads; a padawan braid. They had captured a baby jetii .
It took around an hour before a slightly hitched breath announced the awakening of the little one. Amused Jaster called out to him softly.
"There are no cameras here, little one, neither are our captors."
Cautiously, two eyes the colour of seafoam opened and peered at him with undisguised curiosity. Jaster smiled in answer as non-threateningly as a man his size could. A tiny pink tongue moisturised his lips before the jet'ika spoke.
"Do you know why they captured us? And where the civilians I was with are locked up?"
"I don't even know who captured us, other than some conjectures. And no civilians were brought here with you. If they are on this ship they must be somewhere else."
"The spaceship I was in was pulled out of hyperspace and accosted by pirates, the complete scums of the galaxy kind of pirates… they…" He took a breath before continuing. "They spoke of using me as part of some attraction things, watching me do something."
"So we are both here to be used as entertainment by pirates… a mandalorian supercommando and a jedi padawan… They must be part of a slave fighting circle, capturing fighters from around the Galaxy and putting them into pits to fight for their lives." Sighed Jaster with great annoyance
A clear expression of disgust was visible on the jedi's face expressing all too well his feelings about the situation they were in.
The sound of footsteps on the metal floor stopped their conversation, as a besalisk covered in scars and smelling of booze made his way toward their cells.
"Well, well, well, lookie here who is finally awake. I hope your highness that you enjoy the accommodations, smirked the pirate, for it is everything you will have until you show your worth in our Pit! I am sure you have already met your future victim… or maybe killer, you aren't really fresh anymore after all. Jedi against Mandalorian, that will be a fight to see."
With a last creepy smile in the jet'ika's direction, the besalisk left.
“You are the Mand’alor?” it was expressed like a question, but felt distinctly like an affirmation.
“I am.”
“Su cuy'gar Mand'alor Mereel. I am Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Su cuy'gar Obi-Wan Kenobi."
They spoke for several hours, creating plans and contingencies to those plans for any situations they could encounter and Jaster was really impressed by the little jetii , who was as sharp as he was beautiful. They finally fell back into sleep's arms, the drug not fully out of their systems.
The next day, or what they thought was the next day, another pirate came to their cells with two plates of some greyish mashed something which didn't smell nor taste of anything, a bland protein mush.
As soon as they had eaten, more pirates came by and opened the door to Obi-Wan's cell, threatening him into compliance with the life of the civilians captured with him.
They came back maybe 15 minutes later and took Jaster with them this time. It tooks them a few minutes walking through this truly labyrinthic ship inside. He was pushed through a small door which was locked behind him. He quickly took in his surroundings, a small room the size of a closet with two doors, the one he came from and another facing it. Noticing a vibroblade in a recess in the wall, he took and weighted it. It was surprisingly equilibrated and well made, clean and obviously polished often.
The door opened with a creaking sound that felt extremely artificial. Was it supposed to sound scary? wondered Jaster.
He advanced into what was effectively a fighting pit. A circular room, not particularly big as it was located on a spaceship, with stands where the pirates were sitting, watching Jaster and Obi-Wan, who had entered the pit from another door, directly opposite to his. This felt so cliche and ridiculous to the mandalorian he almost laughed. This whole situation was one fuckup after another. When Jaster would get his hands on Montross the hut'uun would regret ever being alive, oh yes he would. The Mand'alor' would make him regret ever becoming dar'manda , he could beg and scream but nothing would help him escape his just and fair gratii for his nora'kar.
Observing the pirates Jaster couldn't hold a sigh after noticing a hutt there. Of course one of those repulsive oversized slugs would be part of that osik . Jaster was so busy thinking about eviscerating all those scums that he missed most of the slug's word.
"Today for our entertainment, a jedi and a mandalorian warlord will fight to death!"
Thunderous applause and raucous cheers answered that proclamation, but neither Obi-Wan nor Jaster outwardly reacted. In fact they didn't move at all, only stared at each other with a placid expression. When the noises died down, the Mand'alor spoke, one word which created much confusion to the pirates who were obviously not used to hearing it, or listening: "No."
"What do you mean, no?" Screamed the besalisk from the previous day. "Fight!"
"No." Was once again Jaster's answer. "We won't."
"There is no reason why we should fight against each other." Confirmed Obi-Wan
"But you are enemies! You're supposed to be viciously murdering each other for the sport."
"Says who?" Sassed the jedi
"What?"
"Who said that we were enemies? I certainly don't remember any declaration of the like." Continued the redhead.
Jaster had to bite his tongue not to smile at the pretty jetii ’s words. How could so much sass be contained in such a small body? If his expression remained calm and placid, his eyes however were twinkling from mirth, and Obi-Wan almost smiled seeing it. The Mand’alor was despite his size a real ball of fluff, with a soft spot a parsec wide for cute and sassy things, and it was just his luck that he was both, not that he had any interest of the kind in the man, he was a jedi after all, but it was a useful thing to know certainly. Obi-Wan could almost hear Quinlan scoff in his ears, No interest, huh Kenobi?
As the pirates were devolving into a verbal fight about the best way to force their prisoners to obey, Obi-Wan felt the pull of his kyber. The stupid hutt had brought his lightsaber with it as a trophy! He was almost disappointed by such stupidity, but as it was to his advantage, he decided not to care about it. Gripping it through the Force, he used the confusion caused by the fighting pirates to move it in his direction, slowly, and discreetly, all the while begging the Force not to let any of the di’kut notice his action. The Force must have truly been on his side faced with so much idiocy as Jaster was the only one who noticed that something was going on. Hiding his weapon in his clothes, Obi-Wan began to hunt for a blaster or three. Despite his fears of the contrary, everything went smoothly, three blasters ended up hidden in Jaster’s flight suit quite effectively, he even had the time to short up the weapons of several pirates, the Besalisk included, before the hutt took back the control of his crew. So disappointing, thought Jaster, he had hoped, that some of them would fight, thinning their numbers a bit. The padawan must have had the same thought as he frowned before erasing all emotions of his face, fingers wiggling discreetly. Crack! At the same time, one of the pillars of the stand broke, making several pirates fall in the pit. Another cracking sound was heard as another pillar broke under the sudden pressure. Soon all the pillars were breaking, one after another, in a domino effect. A cloud of sand rose in the air as the stand crashed to the ground, sending everyone flying off.
Jaster took the opportunity to grasp two of the stolen blasters, and began shooting on the pirates. At the same time, Obi-Wan turned his lightsaber on, quickly closing in on the mandalorian, deflecting the few blaster bolts sent their way. He would need to thank Quinlan and Master Tholme for the lesson on fighting against blasters once he was back in the Temple. It was not something Master Jinn had taught him, and his usual ataru would be quite useless in that situation.
When the cloud of sand had finally fallen back on the floor, Jaster saw the padawan’s grimace. The pirates were dead, and it was their own damn stupidity that brought their end, but it was easy to see how uneasy the younger one was at so much death. Bringing him closer to his body, Jaster hugged him tightly.
Leaving the pit, they easily found the hostages, locked up in cells, but in good health. However, Jaster was surprised by the lack of guard patrolling the ship. Apparently they had all been watching on the stands like a bunch of di’kut . They didn’t even have two brain cells collectively to rub together and spark an idea. All the better for them then. This may not have been what they were expecting when they had gone on their respective missions but neither Obi-Wan nor Jaster felt disappointed as they went their own way after a last glance in each other’s directions. Maybe they would meet again.