Aayla chokes out a breath. "No." Is all she could manage to say. She sits on her makeshift bed in her tent, her breathing is coming in short and in painful gasps. She tightly closes her eyes, then she hears his cry of pain. Kit's cry of pain. He falls to the ground with a deep cut across his torso. His breaths are agonized and raspy. Kit's breaths slowly become shallow and quiet until he lets out one single word, one name. "Aayla." Kit goes limps and his big black eyes, that Aayla would get herself lost into constantly, slowly glaze over. Aayla opens her eyes immediately. She was shaking. Tears quietly rolling down her blue cheeks. Her breath is caught in her throat...she can't remember how to breathe. 'WAKE UP KIT! Wakeup! Wakeup! Wakeup! You have to wake up! I need you to wake up! You can't be dead! Please wake up!' She mentally screams at him through the Force. No answers comes. Her pleas hit and endless wall of nothing. A quiet sob escapes her lips. "You can't be dead, Kit." She chokes. "You can't be." She whispers. 'Unfortunately, it's true.' A small voice in her head tells her. Then Bly walks in. "General Secura, it's time to go." He reports. "Give me five minutes, Commander." She says forcing herself to sound calm. "But General Secura, we need to leave right away." Bly protests. "I said give me five minutes!" She says sharply, her voice filled with grief. "Yes, sir." Bly says quietly before walking out. 'You promised me that we'd see each other again once I got back. You promised me, Kit.' She thinks. She takes slow deep breaths to calm herself down so that way she wouldn't show her grief. "Conceal the grief and pain. Don't feel the grief and pain." She whispers to herself. One last tear skids down her cheek and lands on the silver chained bracelet she keeps covered under her one sleeve. A bracelet. "Goodbye, Kit." She whispers staring at the bracelet. She wipes the tear away then walks out of the tent and leads her troops through the dense, dangerous, forest of Felucia. Aayla forces herself to focus on the mission, but her mind keeps flashing back to Kit's death. Each time it's like a heavy blow to the chest. Even when she blinks for a split second, Aayla can see Kit grinning at her. "General, we need to rest." Bly says walking up beside her. Aayla nods numbly in agreement. She walks over to an area and stares at nothing in particular. Flashback... Aayla slowly opened her eyes. She immediately shut them as a glaring bright white room entered her vision. Aayla slowly opened them again and noticed that she's in the Jedi Temple medbay. "What happened?" She wondered groggily. "I think I can answer that for you, Aayla." A familiar voice said. Kit. Aayla turned her head to the left ever-so-slightly, but winced in pain. Kit flashed her his trademark grin. "I can't really remember what happened, Kit." She said. "I would be surprised if you could. The aftershock of the explosion from the droid outpost caused you to go flying against the cave wall. You were knocked out instantly. Lucky for you, we found you when we did." He explained. "Who's 'we'? Yourself and the Force?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Yes." Kit admitted. Aayla smiled then started to examine his face. His eyes. His non-existent eyebrows. His skin. His tentacles. Eventually, Aayla's gaze had made it to Kit's mouth, which was smiling infectiously at her. "What are you thinking about, Aayla?" Kit asked looking at her. "Everytime I look at you, think of you, hear you, see you...I'm lost in the waves of Kamino again...I can't breath. But...I like it." She said as his hand rested on her own. "I know it's against the Code, but I don't care, because I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you." Aayla said firmly. "I know. I've just been waiting for you to tell me." Kit grinned. "Why?" She asked. "Because I'm in love with you." Was all he said before pressing his lips against her's. At the back of Aayla's mind, it was a series of conflicted emotions. 'This is against the Code!' One part screamed at her. 'This is how peace should feel.' Another part said more calmly. But the second side one. She kissed him back then pulled away with a smile. She placed a hand gently on the side of his face. "I'm glad you told me how you felt." She smiled. Kit grinned at her. "So am I, Aayla." He replied cupping her face and kissing her lips one last time before walking out. End of flashback... Aayla shakes her head, trying to push any memory of Kit out of her head, or at least burry it down. But, she couldn't bring herself to. It was too painful...actually Aayla didn't know how to describe the pain. She feels as if a part of her was ripped away from her. She always knew this day would come. She knew after all of this time she go through tears of sorrow and joyous laughter with Kit. She knew in the depths of her lekku that with so much joy and happiness, it would be taken away. Destroyed. Formed into grief and agony. Aayla turns to her troops. "Time to go." She orders. The clones obligue and follow her through a safe path through the Felucian forest. Some of the Felucian birds start to squawk and sing their eerie calls. Aayla stops as she looks at a Felucian fly past her. Then a sadistic raspy voice catches her ear. "Execute Order 66." The voice orders. Aayla quietly unhitches her lightsaber from her belt. She knew her time was up. She sees another bird fly past, it's colouring catches Aayla's eye. A pale green. Like Kit's skin tone. 'I'll see you soon, Kit.' She thinks. Then the clones ready their blasters. She whips her head from side to side, looking at them in utter dismay. Then they shoot. She falls to the ground and is slowly being consumed by darkness. 'Sleep, Aayla. All life is a dream.' Kit's voice soothes as it creeps into her mind. She didn't even feel the pain of the blasters continuing to shoot at her back. She closes her eyes and lets the darkness consume her. _ Aayla slowly opens her eyes and blinks a few times to get the blurry edges out of her vision. She slowly stands up and looks around. She's at the Jedi Temple. Only...it's so peaceful. Much more peaceful than it was before the war. From the looks of it, she's in the courtyard. Younglings run past her, giggling and laughing. Aayla looks down and sees that she's in her usual attire with the traditional Jedi robe. She scans the area for one specific Jedi. Kit. She walks around trying to find him. "Aayla." Agen Kolar greets. Aayla nods a greeting. "Do you know where Kit is?" She asks. "Kit? Yeah. He's over there." Agen says gesturing to the tree by a pond. That's when a familiar Nautolan looks at Aayla and flashes her a grin. She runs over to Kit, not caring who is watching, and hugs him close to her. Kit chuckles his good-natured laugh and hugs her back. Aayla suddenly pulls back making Kit frown. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him gently and passionately, before pulling away once again and slapping him across the face. Agen Kolar roars with laughter at this as Kit staggers back in shock, while a group of younglings giggle. Even some of the senior Jedi are chuckling at this. "Sorry, I just had to make sure this was real." She apologizes. "Was that before or after you kissed him?" Agen calls, which both Kit and Aayla ignore. "I understand Aayla, I'm just glad that-" He breaks off as she slaps him across the face once again. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me?" She demands. Kit puts his hands on the sides of her arms to calm her down. "I didn't ask to be killed, Aayla. I made one bad move and Sidious killed me. And I saw how it was affecting you." Kit says. Aayla looks down. "As far as excuses go, that one's not...horrible." She mumbles. Kit chuckles before kissing her once more. She smiles against the kiss. She felt so peaceful...happy...and safe.