Author's Note: I just want to start out and say thanks to all the amazing people here on FFN who inspired me to write this, whether they realized it or not. Eirian Erisdar, PlaidButterfly, SphinxScribe, and SapphireAlena are all totally amazing Star Wars fanfic authors who brought me a new love of the fan literary world. Go check out their stories! Wait – not yet! You have to read this first. :P And special thanks to Wind, who listened to the whole crazy outpouring of the dream this monstrosity comes from.

Now, this is a fic set in the Clone Wars timeline. Everything's a bit iffy, since it's very insubstantial because of the data I had to base it around. We begin on the planet of Sarrish, where the Republic suffers one of their greatest defeats (that we conveniently never visited) during the Clone Wars. All data is pulled from my crazy little head, the comics, the show, and Wookieepedia, God bless that site. Since the date of the battle is unknown, simply mentioned in passing, I'm sort of making a mashup of everything and winging it. If you see continuity errors, feel free to point them out. But this is kinda-sorta-very AU, so. It's not a big deal.

All reviews are appreciated.

(:~:)

Day Zero

The ground shakes beneath the Twi'lek's feet and she stumbles slightly, lekku swinging. Murky water from the recent rains laps around her ankles, mixing with the dust on her lavender skin to form a slick covering of mud.

The orange light of the explosion ahead blooms into the smoky sky, its fiery haze disrupted by the sudden swish-hum of an extended lightsaber, glowing a brilliant turquoise in the sunset hues.

Her com beeps, and she is already in motion, running fluidly forwards.

"Master!" the Padawan gasps into the open commlink. "What happened?"

"The enemy was closer than I expected; they were hiding in the cliffs. We're outnumbered, Asryn. Master Kobey Maru's voice is grim; she can feel his worry through their bond. "Get your squadron and head this way; we may be able to hold them off until the rest get here."

And so the Twi'lek runs, her feet barely touching the ground as she draws on the Force to guide her. "Gull! Hotshot! Dash!" she yells. "Get the others and move out!"

There is a scrambling in the rocks around her as the squadron of clones make to follow her, but her attention has already shifted back to the battle and her Master, who is trying – and failing – to supress the increasing pressure that begins to overflow, trickling into their bond. Asryn feels the urgency rise like bile in her throat.

The Force is like a hurricane around her, dark and tempestuous. Something is about to happen. Something bad.

And there's no kriffing way I'm going to let Master Kobey face it without me, Asryn thinks viciously, vaulting over a pile of boulders and landing lightly in the midst of a nightmare.

A nightmare that has been a reality for these past months.

Before she has time to register troop positions or battle stats, her 'saber is in motion, crackling in the ozone-rich air to shear through two droids in a wide arc, their smouldering halves dripping slag as they tumble to the craggy earth. The hum of battle sings in her head, beating in tandem with the buzz of blaster bolts.

Snap-kick.

Front flip.

Backhand slash.

The katas are familiar, coming in practiced ease, making the small purple form seem to dance across the rough ground, like a spring violet, blowing in a breeze. The Padawan carves a swathe to her Master's side, her back pressing against his, the two settling into a comfortable rhythm of slash, duck, weave, deflect

"Miss me?"

"As much as you missed me, Padawan," comes the usual dry remark.

"So," she grunts, slashing a bolt aside, "not at all, Master? I'm hurt."

Though she can't see his face, she can feel Master Maru's shoulders shift in a short laugh, the leather tabards of his outfit scraping against her linen tunic.

Asryn loses track of the time filled by their silence, a void of deflected shots and ruined droids. She is so immersed in the layers of the Force that she can feel every life around her, the small candle-flames that are the clones. Every time one snuffs out, she fights down a wave of nausea. And there are so many extinguishing, the number dwindling, dwindling….

Then it happens.

Something clatters nearby, and a high-pitched whining pierces through the air, drilling into Asryn's head like a burning 'saber strike.

She realizes what it is a second too late, and the world explodes into a starburst of red, red and screaming and flying shrapnel and the lives, they're all winking out in one wave and the screaming it's in her head, oh Force, no, NO -

A searing pain in her eyes –

My chest hurts –

My head –

Master?

….

MASTER?

MASTER?!