AN: This is my first FanFic of any kind so don't be too brutal when reviewing. The summary kind of sucks, but the story itself is good. It's rated R for a few incidents of course language. Have fun :) I don't own any Star Wars characters that were made before; Shada D'ukal and Mara Jade. The rest I made up.

"Damn, I really hate the jungle." She snarled as she pushed aside more branches and walked into another pool of mud.

"You've already said that, Shada." Sky replied. Admittedly he didn't like being on this trip either, but since the Eleven had sent them, they had to be here. Shada hadn't seemed to mad about it. Of course they hadn't known then that they'd be walking into a jungle. When he though about it, though, Sky wasn't that upset about being here. It was sort of peaceful. What bothered him the most was how although he was just under ten years older than her, he was always paired up with his sixteen-year-old sister and she always led the entire trip. He knew that although they argued and fought occasionally, they also worked very well together. He had to admit Shada was good. She'd always win every fight with him either through brute force or cruel logic. According to their father it was the same way their mother won arguments. Shada was also an almost perfect copy of their mother, except for her eyes. Her eyes were the same color as their father's, ice blue. But that was the only resemblance. Shada had also begun to slowly go goth over the past ten years. She now wore completely black clothes and her room was . . . well it was her room. You had to say that. It was also completely black. But it wasn't the way she dressed or the resemblance to their mother that caught people's . . . what attention? . . . no, it was more like unnerving people than catching anything; it was her eyes. Ice blue, yes, but with no sign of emotion ever. Boy how true that was. The only emotion Sky had ever seen her have since she was born was hate and anger and occasionally, complete and utter disgust. Her eyes were always cold and when you spoke to her, if she didn't give you a sarcastic, unfeeling reply, she raised an eyebrow that same disgust in her eyes.

Sky was jarred out of his musing with his sister's curse. "Shassa!"

He saw he had almost run into her. "What's the matter now, Sha?"

"Damn it." Shada D'ukal snarled. "You'd think they'd at least let us in on some of the terrain." She looked up at her older brother. He had the same green eyes as their mother and now, that made her mood, which had already been bad, worse. It wouldn't have, normally, if the woman hadn't tried to kill her, but she had, and as good a fighter Shada was, she almost hadn't made it out alive, but then again, neither had her mother.

"Wow, that's a long, long drop." Sky said as he peered around her. He was unaware of his sister glaring moodily into his eyes.

She turned away from him. "How do we get down? According to the map the Eleven gave us, we go down." Sky didn't answer her, just looked around and that pissed her off even more.

She was about to yell at him, when he walked away, coming back with two boards that resembled wheel-less skateboards . . . almost. "Here." He handed her one. "Follow me."

"Sky." She warned. "If —."

"Relax." He cut her off, ignoring her glare. "This will work." I hope. He thought. He stepped on the edge of the cliff, the board beneath his feet, looking like it would break, and rearranged his navy blue bag. "Wait 'til I tell you to go." He pushed off. Shada sighed and shifted her black bag as she watched Sky slide down the cliff face. Damn him if he thinks I'm gonna wait. She thought, but as she watched him, she decided she'd rather wait. He was kicking up dust and rocks behind him, not to mention waking every type of bug that could possibly live in the moss on the cliff. Yuck. She thought. How disgusting. She would have to go down like that too and she would no doubt kick up the same stuff. Unless that should happen. That would be an issue. Plus, if he died on the way down, she would just find another, better way down. Surprisingly, he reached the bottom without a problem. He looked up and waved her down. She followed thinking I must be crazy. But just like Sky, Shada made it down safely. "Come on, let's go." He said. They continued following the map.

"I hate the jungle." Shada snarled again. This time Sky ignored her. Why in hell did she have to end up on the jungle anyway? If the Eleven hadn't sent Sidney Bristol, Scott Mason, and Veronica Marks off on that stupid mission, she and Sky wouldn't be here trekking through the jungle that never seemed to end with mud on their clothes and scratches from twigs and thorns. It was like being on a jungle world only when they had been in orbit, the whole thing sure as hell didn't look all jungle. They might not have even been here if Sky hadn't volunteered. The only reason he'd volunteered anyway had been because Sidney was his current girlfriend.

As if he could read the track her thoughts had taken, Sky said. "It's your own fault, you know. If you didn't ignore every guy that tried to even hit on you much less ask you out, you'd have a boyfriend." She ignored him and growled under her breath. She thought about hitting him, but decided not to. It would get her no where.

An hour later, Shada and Sky set up camp. "So who gets first watch?" Sky asked as he set up the tent. The tent she had made him carry, along with anything else that wasn't food or necessary for basic survival in the wilderness and except for some choice things. Well, except for the power packs. They'd split all of those. After all, two blasters, two gunners, split the power packs, right?

"I say you do, you're older."

"So we flip."

"Flip!" She raised her eyebrow in disbelief. "Flip what a rock! Smooth side gets watch? You're a real genius, you know."

He grinned at her. "Rock, paper, scissors?"

"Fine." Five minutes later, she was propped against a tree, seething as Sky got ready to sleep for half the night. He turned the light out and that's when she heard it, a low growl, not that close, but not that far either. It was the growl of something hunting. Something big. She listened for a few minutes longer, then let her thoughts wander back to why the fucking Eleven had sent them here. Not to mention what had they sent the others for here as well. She was running in circles when she heard it again. She glanced at Sky's tent, then at her chrono. It was only an hour later and the thing was closer. Of course, if it got too close and Sky wasn't up, she'd just kill it herself. Hell, if it breathed, it bled, it died, right? She snorted. Sky would yell at her for even considering the idea. But then again, that makes it a whole lot more fun. She thought.

Around midnight, Sky got up. He saw that Shada was too alert for watch. "What's up?" He whispered. She didn't answer right away, but listened with her head cocked to the side. She resembled a dog listening to a dog whistle.

"Something's out there." She said. "It's hunting and getting closer." Sure enough, he heard a low growl and Shada was right, it sounded pretty close.

"Why in hell didn't you wake me up?" He demanded. Stupid question, she probably planned to kill the thing herself.

"I decide to see whether I could kill it. If I couldn't, I'd wake you up." She replied.

"If Dad were her," Sky warned. "He would —."

"Dad's not here so don't give me those threats." She got up and headed towards the tent. "Your turn to take watch." She reached the tent and started to go in then stopped. "Oh and it's been growling and getting closer about every hour at least until you showed." She vanished into the tent and Sky sat down where she had been just a few minutes ago.

An hour later just like she had said, it growled and it was closer too. Too close for Sky's preference. He should really let Shada sleep though. Well I'll let her sleep until it got closer. He thought. But it never came closer. It continued its growling every hour, but that was it. Sky was certain that it was also watching, not him, but Shada, even though she was now in the tent.