"Normal talking."

"Mind speaking."

'Thoughts.'

Chapter Four – Lift-off

The droid that had its blaster pointed at the clones and Master Plo staggered out and collapsed on the ground, sparks flying and limbs twitching.

Then the rest of the battalion emerged from the trees, surrounding them.

And the fireworks began.

Moving with the speed of trained and seasoned soldiers, the strange people scattered, leaping into the foliage, diving behind tree trunks, and readying weapons. The clones instantly took cover behind the trees and began to return fire while the two Jedi stood in the middle of the clearing, using their glowing lightsabers to easily deflect the red blaster fire while the bolts of blue whisked by their sides and into trees and droids alike. Occasionally an arrow or a knife would fly out of the verdure and undergrowth, but for the most part Dogtooth and her team stayed out of the fight.

"They're probably hoping the droids will kill us and then they won't have to deal with us," Ahsoka spat, still harboring bitterness toward the shape shifters, especially the General. She twirled and spun as she twisted her lightsabers around her, repelling the red bolts that were the fingerprint of the Separatists.

"They will not allow us to be killed," Master Plo pointed out. "They are helping us now, however little that may be; it would not benefit them for us to be killed."

"No, it would not," General Dogtooth slid up to them in her alternate form, which was a huge black wolf with a pair of wide, fifteen foot wings and two long fluffy tails. Her body was covered in silver armor and her paws had strange gloves on with long, jagged metal blades that extended past her already long claws. "I have my team set up in our standard attack formation. When you pull your troops out, we will deal with the droids."

"What, no!" Ahsoka snarled, speaking for Master Plo since he was slightly shocked to see her alternate form and then to actually experience her unique ability to project her voice into someone else's mind. "We are fighting here! You can't just come here and tell us to go –"

"Will you be able to defeat them without casualties?" Plo Koon interrupted.

"Yes. We have dealt with them before with fewer people. Our strategies are very effective." It was hard to tell, but Ahsoka could have sworn that her fuzzy wolf muzzle smirked. "We'll take care of them."

"Very well then," Master Plo agreed. "Ahsoka, you heard her. Pull back and join the troops."

"You're no serious, are you?" The Togrutan teenager gasped. She was not about to let Dogtooth get all the glory. However, Plo Koon's stern gaze was penetrating and she made one last noise of irritation before she began to fall back, deflecting laser blasts all the while. She stopped when she was just in front of and to the side of Rex.

"Commander, what's going on?" He shouted above the noise, "Are we retreating?"

"No, Rex. We are letting General Dogtooth and her team take over."

"What?" The clone captain sounded confused, "Is there a problem?"

"There will be," Ahsoka muttered irritably.

Then she saw the twins with neon green eyes and maroon hair – only now they were large maroon wolves with neon green eyes – flash towards them, racing low to the ground, which made them look like two streaks of dark light. The clones and Jedi retreated to the edge of the forest but didn't go any further. The twin wolves skidded to a halt in front of them and turned to face the enemy, who was firing blaster shots at them.

'Ok, they'll move soon. Any second now . . .' Ahsoka thought as she watched, almost in slow motion, the red lasers moving closer and closer to the twins, who were doing nothing but standing. Ahsoka was sure they had turned to stone when they both opened their maws and roared blue mist. It was as fast as a blaster and when it mingled with the red lasers, no one could see anything for a moment.

Then the lasers exited the mist, completely enshrouded in ice. They rolled to the twins' feet and lay there, unmoving. Before Ahsoka had a chance to be shocked by this, a pale blue wolf, like the color of the sky, swooped in with huge wings and on its back was the man with deep blue eyes, only now he was a wolf, but he was small, almost runty. The pale blue wolf glided low to the droids and the runty, dark blue wolf spat out ice crystals which exploded and instantaneously froze the droids in a five standard yard radius.

Ahsoka turned to comment to Rex but saw the woman who had taken her here in the first place – Iris – kneeling on the ground with her hand pressed against it, her eyes closed. Then she opened them and swung her arms around in front of her in one continuous motion. Shinning blue squares, one standard foot by one standard foot, materialized in front of her, about a dozen of them. They reminded Ahsoka of a holo-projection, except there wasn't a projector anywhere. Iris's eyes glinted triumphantly and she yelled louder than the sounds of lasers firing, "Ha! Conifer, I got it up! We are good to go!"

Ahsoka heard a faint, "Copy that!" and then she felt about a dozen faint pulses of energy through the Force and the blue screens changed until they formed a complete structure of a clearing. With a chill, the Jedi realized that it was the clearing they were fighting in.

Iris placed something in her ear—a communications device. She said, "This is Commander Iris. The Eye is up and running. Repeat, the Eye is up and running. Relaying info now." As Ahsoka watched, she could see several figures moving on the projection. She spared a quick glance out of the corner of her eye and saw the exact same thing in the actual clearing.

'It's a projection of what's actually happening, like a bird's eye view,' Ahsoka thought, surprised. As she watched, she saw what looked to be like the flying blue wolf and the runty one from before on there and there was a droid sniper taking aim. The flying wolf wouldn't see it.

Ahsoka thought that they were going to die when Iris spoke again, "Rain, snipe—seven o'clock." The flying wolf—Rain—instantly turned hard to the right and the runty wolf froze the droid sniper with an ice projectile. Iris checked over the projection before speaking again, "General, all clear. Battlefront is a go. Repeat, Battlefront is a go." Dogtooth, still in wolf form, burst into the clearing. The droids had advanced into open area and out of the trees.

The General was like a wild animal. The Separatists stood no chance. She whirled around and clawed their gold colored chests, sparks flying about. She would jump on one and rip its head off with a twist of powerful jaws and sharp teeth. Her twin tails had been covered in armor and the tips were sharper than a sword. When her tails waved around—just to help her keep her balance—they sawed through the enemy like warm butter. Her fearsome helmet was in the shape of a skull that amplified her fire breath, but her fire was different. It was a dangerous, blinding bone-white. It ate everything it touched and droids were no exception. Within moments, all the droids were destroyed.

And then Dogtooth shifted into her 'human' form and began coughing. A dribble of blood dribbled out of the corner of her mouth before she wiped it away hastily. The black haired woman stood up shakily and the twins rushed forward to help her, but she pushed them away, scowling. Ahsoka could tell that she was still in pain, but couldn't understand why. The droids never even touched her.

Iris hurriedly stepped forward, "We have defeated them, Master Jedi. Now we must return home and take Ahsoka with us." At his still uncertain face - although it was hard to tell - she scoffed, "Oh, it's not like we're going to hurt her or something! We're on your side, just not officially."

Plo was about to reply when Ahsoka spoke up, "Master, I want to go, please. I want to help them."

The redhead raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Plo was just as confused, "Ahsoka, are you sure? We don't know anything about them."

"Yeah, just talk about us like we're not even here," Conifer muttered from where he was by Dogtooth, who was still struggling to contain her coughs.

Ahsoka shook her head, "I won't be gone long, Master. Only a week."

"We will also provide transportation to wherever Ahsoka may need to go when it is time for her to leave," Iris put in.

Plo sighed, "Very well, 'Soka. I will contact you tomorrow." He quickly muttered in her montral, "Be careful," and walked away.

Iris stared at Ahsoka warily but smiled anyway, "Well, I'm glad you want to help, Ahsoka."

"Hm," the Togruta grunted, "What's wrong with Dogtooth?" She pointed at the General, who was still coughing.

Iris looked a little uneasy, "That white fire you saw, that was another experiment the scientists tried. It didn't work out just right, though. It burns her throat whenever she uses it. There's a special potion back at the City that she invented to help heal her throat, although I think she's got a bottle on The Claw's Revenge. Fortunately, she was the only one who they tried it on."

"I see."

The silence between the two females was awkward, to say the least. Then Conifer trotted over, "Hey, what's the hold up? Let's go home!"

"Uh, yeah. Yes, let's go," Iris agreed immediately. Ahsoka followed them deeper into the forest. The twins, Dogtooth, Rain, and the deep blue eyed man had already left, Dogtooth still coughing up blood from the wounds in her throat. Ahsoka couldn't say she felt sorry for her and still be truthful. Her decision to leave with them was not completely on impulse. She had seen how they acted, how they fought, how they worked and was grudgingly impressed with their tactical forethought and careful planning. If she could learn a few tricks, then it could give the Republic an advantage over the Separatists. But she was a little curious to see what she was apparently needed for.

"So, why do I need to come with you anyways?" She asked. No point in being vague.

Unfortunately, they saw a point. "We need your opinion," Iris said. "We'll explain more once we get on the ship."

It didn't take them long to get to it. The ship was old, obviously made a long time ago, but Ahsoka couldn't figure out what type of ship it was. She had never seen it before and it looked like it had been made from junkyard scraps all slapped together with super-duty glue. She stared at it incredulously, "That's your ship? That hunk of space junk? Seriously?"

Iris snorted, "Oh, I'm soo sorry, Your Majesty. Just let me go the nearest civilized planet, in the middle of Wild Space, and somehow buy a ship with no credits."

Ahsoka was about to snap back when Conifer interrupted, "Hey, come on now. Let's just not fight."

His voice trailed off when both females glared daggers at him. He wilted slightly and muttered, "I guess I'll help the others get the ship ready."

Conifer left and Iris glared at Ahsoka and Ahsoka glared at Iris. "After you," Iris said mockingly, sweeping her arm toward the ship overdramatically. Ahsoka scowled at her but walked up the ships ramp and sat down in what looked to be the main hull of the ship, which just a bunch of seats lined up against the sides. Iris made her way into the cockpit.

Ahsoka was about to follow her when Dogtooth strode in from what appeared to be a small room in the back. A woman with short, bright blue hair followed and Ahsoka recognized her as the flying blue wolf from earlier—Rain. Rain somewhat smiled at Ahsoka, but it was awkward and she hurried into the cockpit as well. Dogtooth laid down on the seats and covered her eye with her arm.

A cheery female's voice full of static sounded throughout the ship, "Welcome to the *static*hope that *static*are not responsible for *static*a nice day!" The General, without even looking, used her fist to smack the side of the ship and managed to stop the automated recording from playing a second time.

With a horrible grating noise, the ship's engines started and the smell of smoke filled the interior. The entire ship creaked and groaned as it shuddered into liftoff. Ahsoka wasn't much bothered by it; she had had several closer calls with her Master in worse aircraft than The Claw's Revenge. After a few minutes in the air, Dogtooth had gone as still as a stone.

'Is she asleep?' Ahsoka wondered.

"No, I'm not," Dogtooth's muffled voice sounded and Ahsoka jumped then stared, still slightly disturbed that she could hear her thoughts. "Take a holo-picture, it'll last longer," she snapped out this time.

"Hey, don't take your anger out on me," Ahsoka retorted.

Surprisingly, she just sighed, "Sorry, sorry. I just hate showing weakness in front of others."

"Then you must sulk a lot," the Togruta muttered. She knew it wasn't true; she had seen Dogtooth in action and could understand why she was the General of the Warriors. She had utterly destroyed them.

Dogtooth didn't answer, just kept covering her eye with her arm. The silence was starting to annoy Ahsoka, who, being a Togruta—a hunting species—always needed to move and do something.

"So, why are you covering your eye? Does it hurt?"

Dogtooth exhaled slowly, as if trying to contain her anger before answering, "Whenever I breathe Bone-Blaze—that white fire you saw earlier—it burns my esophagus and begins to eat it away slowly because of the acid that makes the fire so destructive."

"Gross," Ahsoka muttered.

She was ignored. "I developed a concoction that helps heal it faster and repairs the damage done. But it has some side-affects that are less than pleasurable. Like horrible migraines and muscle spasms."

A massive rumble from the ship interrupted her and it became uncomfortably hot. Ahsoka, naturally warmer than most creatures, began to sweat and wiped it off of her forehead. "What's going on?"

"Oh, we've just exited the atmosphere. It'll get real cold then hot again," the one eyed woman muttered. She still sounded like she was in pain.

Ahsoka didn't answer. Not another word was exchanged between the two the entire trip there. Only when the shuddering whump of the ship landing nearly made her fall out of her seat did Ahsoka do anything. She stood up as the door to the cockpit opened and Rain, completely ignoring Ahsoka, hurried over to Dogtooth.

"General, we've landed."

Dogtooth scowled, "I may have a splitting headache, but I can tell when The Claw's Revenge has landed. I'm not senile."

Rain tried to rectify her mistake, "I-I didn't mean it as a-an insult, General. I thought you were asleep."

"Trust me, if I could sleep, I would. But my head seems to have problems with that."

The blue haired woman gave her a pitying look, "It hasn't lessened yet, General?"

Dogtooth shook her head, then winced, "No, it'll go away in an hour or so."

Ahsoka, still holding a grudge, frowned, "And how would you know that? You're no doctor."

"Actually, she is," Conifer put in, standing by the door. When Ahsoka turned to him, he shrugged, "She's the City doctor/surgeon/physician. Fortunately, we don't get sick a lot and we're usually not that clumsy."

Iris snorted, just walking out of the cockpit with the other man and the twins, "Tell that to Pepper." She grabbed the large handle that was holding the door closed and, with a grunt, slowly managed to open the door that had to be centuries old. Bright sunlight streamed in and, although she wasn't even looking directly into it, it still made Ahsoka squint. "Home, sweet home," Iris sighed happily, stepping outside. Conifer followed her. The female twin glanced at her, almost cautiously, while her brother made no attempt to hide his scorn toward her. The man with dark blue eyes still showed no emotion toward her, but he did give her a polite nod, but it showed nothing about his personal feelings.

"Come on, let's go," Rain urged. She seemed completely fine with Ahsoka. Her shoulders were relaxed and her stance was calm. She exited the ship, leaving just the General and Ahsoka inside.

Dogtooth grumbled, "Oh, this is going to hurt," then stepped outside. A few moments later, Ahsoka heard her curse, "Ah, kriffing banthas!" She couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. She could hear her brother, Conifer, sniggering loudly outside before he was silenced from a loud smack!

Something inside of her nagged that if she set foot outside, on their ground, that there was no going back. She would be stuck there until whatever was going on there was resolved. She should have gone back, should have forced them to take her back to whatever planet they had been on before, but something stopped her. The Force urged her to help them, that in the end, it would be worth it. It was for the benefit of the Republic and the Jedi and it would lead to the downfall of the Sith, she could feel it.

Her eyes flashed resolutely and she placed her foot into the warm sunlight.

There was no going back now.

I'm sooo sorry I took so long to update. I've been spending a lot of time writing an actual book that I want to publish, so FanFiction is placed second priority. Sorry.

-Vixen