A/N: Enjoy folks! ;) Reviews are love :D

Huge thanks to NixNox, Asami and Tyren for putting up with me during this chapter and betaing it for me. *mwah!*


===Balmorra, Sobrik, Sunken Sarlacc Cantina, several months later===

Training clones out of their ingrained, near brainwashed blind loyalty was a hard process as was teaching them to think for themselves. It had been necessary however considering the nature of the job they'd been hired for. Of the nine that had remained, eight passed training, with one of them returning to the 212th as a Sergeant to lead a squad, as he hadn't been psychologically disciplined enough. Slick had been a passionate individual, highly intelligent and individualistic, but he lacked the common sense and discipline to keep sight of higher goals. Needless to say he hadn't been happy about not making the cut.

Now Valanthe along with five of the eight troopers who'd passed training was on a covert assignment on Balmorra. The three others; nicknamed Vas, Blackie and Len had their own assignment on Felucia. Valanthe, Burner, Stick, Aster, Pel and Torn had been tasked with infiltrating the Balmorran Arms Factory, the Okara Droid Factory and the Troida Military workshop and uncover which of the three major weapons, ammunitions and droid producers were on the CIS payroll and disrupt and/or hopefully destroy this particular supply line. The Republic was aware of Geonosian factories but they were at the time too heavily guarded.

Balmorra, having seceded from the Republic months before and given protection by the Trade Federation Lucrehulk ships, fell under the suspicion of siding with the Separatists, particularly after General Grievous had been spotted in the system several weeks ago. As soon as Valanthe's unit was ready, they were dispatched on missions. So far they had remained undetected, though the area they operated in hadn't been particularly Seppie orientated. So that put Okara Droid Factory and the Troida Military Workshop off of their list.

One more remained, the Balmorran Arms Factory. The Factory's Foreman frequented the establishment, particularly enjoying Alderaanian whiskey and the very friendly women. Valanthe's cover was one of a such friendly woman. Her boys were strategically placed inside the Cantina, outside of it and in one of the rooms on the floor above that Valanthe's alter ego Kylinra had rented.

While she herself only changed her outfit, the guys having had to go greater lengths lest they be recognized. This was where Vala's friendship with Julius was put to good use as he was able to procure disguises in the form of a holographic disguise matrix, aka the shadow hologram. His connections as a bounty hunter managed to procure them six matrices so the now very different looking clones were blended into the background.

Vala herself could not recognize them save for their Force signatures. True to their training, their behavior adjusted according to their roles. The Mirialan herself was dressed in an extremely tight fitting, sleeveless lilac dress that matched her eyes.

It just barely covered her behind, displaying strong, well toned thighs and calves covered in green shimmersilk stockings more to hide her tattoos than to attract, topped off with high heeled, modern black shoes. The fabric clung to her curves like second skin, dipping low around the cleavage, displaying her tightly packed breasts as if they were trophies. Her hair was fluffed up and curled, and she had a generous amount of purple make up on.

She hated the outfit with a passion. None of them voiced it, but the boys loved it, she could tell. One of the rare occasions so far that they had seen her out of her usual pants, shirt, boots and duster outfit. Even then she'd noticed looks and interest, but in this instance, it was as overwhelming as it was interesting. Their male genes were clearly at play here, despite their training, accelerated aging and just general genetic manipulations the Kaminoans. Nature was fascinating that way. Aim to create something uniform and identical in large batches and get something completely unexpected. Life in its infinite diversities.

So, dolled up she sat at the bar, legs crossed, slowly sipping a cocktail, her eyes casually inspecting those who would enter.

The Foreman, Jax Rath was a small but compact looking human male, a Balmorran local. He had thick black hair and piercing blue eyes, a goatee and more than ample amounts of charm.

"No sign of him yet," Aster commented quietly from his position outside.

They each had earbud type communication devices to minimize tell take motion of answering a wrist comm.

"These are his hours. Keep your eyes peeled, Aster." Her ever vigilant and task focused second-in-command, Burner commented from within the big room.

Like the others, he too had grown his hair out and individualized, as such his hair was just on the side of floppy, similar to General Kenobi's style, only dyed a dark red, as were his eyebrows. He always sported a five'o'clock shadow nowadays.

He nearly choked when he saw the Commander in the honeytrap outfit. The boys had pretty much the same reactions which he couldn't blame them for. The Commander, or Vala as she insisted they call her but only he did so and only in private, was their Commanding Officer and they needed to show her proper respect. Or so his inner soldier gnawed at him. He couldn't really blame his brothers for noticing the woman in their midst. Especially since she was an attractive one to boot.

So he kept them in line as best he could but never really punished them for being what they were. Men. Men loyal to their Commander. It was his job to keep all of them safe.

Seeing her in that incredibly sexual outfit made him realize what role she'd assigned herself and it made him feel awful. She was the bait, having to do something so degrading for the sake of a mission was a clone's job. When he'd said it to her she chewed him out for having such a low opinion of himself and his brothers but admitted to hating such roles, as necessary as they were.

Aster's words broke him out of his thoughts. Eastern entrance, appears to be alone.

Vala put on as sultry a smile as she knew how to do, slightly adjusted her cleavage and made a point to cross her legs just as the man entered. She hated playing bait, especially if it lead to physicality. To her such pursuits were a matter between two people who actually liked and were attracted to each other. The Jedi restraint and mindfulness was something she was both grateful and resentful for in these instances.

It kept her choices well thought out, but at the same time she needed a long time to even allow for such feelings. But currently she was more hoping that her boys could play their parts rather than her own issues.

She could sense the shift of his interest as his piercing blue eyes caught her's across the room. She smirked at him, raising her glass of whiskey and slightly nodding, a coy expression on her face. Vala had to play him so that he would come to her. Her eyes crinkled as she held his gaze, a delicate eyebrow raised, all the trademark tells of a come hither posture.

With a charming smile he detangled himself from the group of people that had surrounded him, ordering a drink as he slowly made his way through the crowd, barely taking his eyes off of her. She kept her gaze still and confident, smiling silkily at him, running her eyes along his form unabashedly.

His smirk grew into a grin as he noticed that she was checking him out. Jax did the same, quite slowly, his eyes took in her form, her posture, her smile, her eyes.

There we go, she thought to herself as she watched him drink her in. On any other day, in any other non-work situation she would feel affected and appreciate the burning attention. Now though, despite her smile and openness, it made her stomach twist and her gut tighten. She'd have to go a lot further still before she could even suggest going up to her room.

"G'evenin'" Jax drawled as he approached her, taking the stool next to her without asking if it was available.

Even his accent is ramped for charm, Vala quietly observed as she threw him a smile, "evening' yourself, handsome."

He languidly took the glass given to him, "Alderaanian whiskey, ye know yer stuff." Pointing to her glass, he clinked his against hers and took a sip.

Vala did the same, holding his eyes holding hers as she did so. "I asked for the best they had, I'm told this is it. It's quite good."

He held up a hand, "no, no dearie, not quite good. The best. I see I'm going to have to teach you some things. Name's Jax, by the way." He proceeded to extend his hand to her.

Languidly she placed hers in his, "Kylinra."

"Well, Ky, tonight's your lucky night. Let me tell you why Alderaanian whiskey is the best liquor out there." He leaned closer to her, his hand falling on her knee and squeezing a little.

So it begins, a bitter thought as she pretended to listen with rapt attention. The hand slowly but surely moved up, kneading and massaging, as he spoke, his eyes alternating between her cleavage, her lips and her eyes. Occasionally she would nod, keeping her own eyes dancing on his features, trying very hard not to squirm at his wandering hand which slowly made its way further up her thigh. The pit in her stomach deepened and revulsion slowly filled it. Sadly, it was hardly over.

He leaned closer to her in a half whisper, and she shivered as his other hand grazed across her cleavage albeit in a gentle manner. She forced a smile and craned her neck a little.

The fury of her team was almost palpable as they were forced to watch and not take action until she actually lead the sleemo to her room. Valanthe only hoped they'd be able to contain themselves, as she was forced to do herself.

"Mhm…" she murmured as he said something she'd only half heard, her stomach churning further as his hand slid almost under her dress. "Do you want to take this…" she paused for breath as his fingers grazed at her panties, "upstairs?"

Vala pulled back a little to look at him, her eyes half lidded and a coy smirk on her lips. Momentary relief came as his hand released her inner thigh. Only to latch onto her hips along with his other one. Only then did she realize that he was actually standing between her now parted legs.

"You have a room?" He leaned closer to her, his lips grazing her left earlobe as his fingers danced across her waist and hips.

She nodded, gasping for a breath to stop herself from lashing out. Thankfully he seemed to interpret it as desire as he stepped back with a smug grin and took one of her hands, tugging at her gently to follow him.

"Put it on my tab." He motioned to the bartender then to both of their drinks as he pulled her against his side, his arm firmly locking her hip to his as he leaned in and plastered his lips to her cheek and started for the side room.

The side room was actually a lift that lead to the upper floor. Jax motioned for her to enter first. As she did so, she took a quick, deep breath, preparing herself for what would follow. Soon enough, his hands found her waist again and roughly turned her around. She plastered on a smile as one of his arms grasped a buttock while the other slid into her hair and pulled her flush against him, searing her lips onto his. Her arms wrapped around his torso and shoulder as she threw herself into the kiss, praying that the lift would go faster.

Then her back hit the wall and she felt herself being raised, her legs wrapping around his waist. One of his hands left her momentarily and to her horror the lift suddenly stopped. The horror continued as his lips slowly started sucking and nibbling on her neck and he ground his hips against hers. His excitement could clearly be felt through the relatively thin layers of fabric.

Kriff! Kriff! Kriff! Kriff! She cursed mentally. A hitch in a plan was always expected, but this was not quite what she had in mind and that was putting it all so mildly.

Thankfully, the lift got moving again before she had time to properly panic and think of a way that she could get out of what would clearly lead to sex right then and there. Only, his hands never left her, so she imagined it must have been an outside influence. One of her boys or someone else?

Suddenly he moved away from her, holding her hand and pulling her out of the lift. For the sake of appearances she pulled at the hem of her dress, pulling it back over her behind, as she pretended to stumble after him.

"The one to the left." She pointed to a room, with a silly smile on her face.

In the back of her mind she registered Pel and Torn approaching her position albeit slowly, to not raise suspicion.

As she reached into her cleavage she pulled out a room key and moved to open the door. He was at her back almost instantly, grinding his hips against hers, his lips peppering kisses along her neck as she pretended to fumble with the key a little.

Swallowing hard, she opened the door and nearly fell over were it not for him, ironically. Quickly though he turned her around and kissed her roughly. The doors slipped closed behind them. His hands slid under her dress and pulled it up as he pushed her towards the bed, his lips never leaving hers.

Spirits, hurry it up. She thought to herself, knowing that Stick was monitoring the situation from the adjacent room. There was only so much embarrassment and exhibitionism she wanted to show her boys.

As she was pushed back onto the bed and he started to climb over her the doors slowly slid open and he was roughly pulled back a muscled arm locking over his throat, the other locking his twisted arm behind his back.

"You kriffin' schutta!" Jax growled, as Pel held him, Torn blocking the door, hand placed over his blaster.

Vala climbed off the bed, pulling her dress down again, "been called worse."

"The kriff do you want?" Rath struggled but to little avail, Pel's superior physical strength and skill easily held him immobilized.

"I want your factory access codes and your personal access codes." She stepped over to him. "We can do this the easy way, you tell me. Or the hard way, we make you tell me." Vala winked in some self satisfaction she couldn't escape.

"I ain't tellin' ye nuffin', schutta." He growled against Pel's hold.

Then he growled with pain as Pel's fist impacted his kidneys, hard.

She gripped his greasy hair and scowled a little at its feel as she pulled his head up. "Shall we try again?"

"Go kriff yourself!" He spat in her face, then growled again as Pel's fist greeted his kidney yet again.

Blinking slowly, Vala wiped the spit off of her face. "Very well, I'll take that as the option number two choice." She . "Hold him up."

Pel hoisted the man upright, using his solid frame to keep the weasel tightly secured to him.

She was never a proponent of using mind tricks to this degree. Sure, small deceptions to make people forget her and to misdirect but openly compelling people to reveal information was something else entirely and it delved into dark desires she knew she had to stay away from.

But needs must and if anyone found him overly bruised or worse, tortured, eyebrows would be raised to say the least. Worse even if he let on anything about their identities. So, focusing, she made motion with her hand in front of his face.

"You will tell me your factory access codes and your personal access codes." She said in an even, precise tone.

His face took on a vacant expression. " I will tell you my factory and personal access codes." Jax began slowly reciting the codes.

Her adrenaline was slowly ebbing which meant that the reality of things would soon kick in. That and they also had to hurry up and get out of there.

As Jax finished his recital, his expression remained vacant.

"Stick, did you get that?" Vala pressed on the small communication device in her ear.

Got it. You're good to cleansweep. Came the reply.

Again, she waved her hand in front of his face, "you will forget you saw us. You will forget you gave us any codes. You slept with the local Mirialan girl as far as you remember. This was her room."

"I will forget I saw you. I will forget I have you any codes. I slept with the local Mirialan girl. This was her room." He obediently recounted.

Focusing her mind further she touched his forehead with her palm. "Fall asleep." She murmured softly.

Jax Rath slumped in Pel's arms, Torn moving to help him take Rath to the bed while Valanthe quickly stepped into the adjacent room where Stick was quickly bypassing the room's sensor feed. He briefly glanced at her as she passed him but said nothing. He was too embarrassed to say anything so he focused on the job at hand.

With a somewhat shaky breath she reached into one of the duffel bags and began quickly changing into more workable clothes. A pair of cargo pants, boots, a shirt and a jacket. She ran a quick comb through her hair and wiped off what make up she could. In a way she was grateful that Stick was avoiding looking at her or saying anything because she felt like she was on the verge of tears.

As she finished changing and dumped the dress and the rest of the outfit back into the duffel bag. Pulling out the sixth shadow hologram and initiated its preset programming. She would emerge out of this room as a young, blonde human female on plain, local clothing.

As she stepped into the projection and clipped the device to her belt, she watched it adjust over her form. Pale, untatooed skin seemed so foreign to her. Pel and Torn joining them broke her out of her thoughts.

"Everything ready?" She asked, her voice coming out a soft drawl rather than her usual, crisp accent. This was the beauty of a shadow hologram. It changed the voice and readouts as well as the visual appearance.

"He's set up wake later, alone in bed thinking he drank himself into stupor." Said Pel, his voice a lot softer than the usual accent the clones sported.

Vala nodded, "alright, Stick give the exfil order, Burner and Aster first, then Pel and Torn, the I'll go. You exfil once we're outside of the Cantina perimeter and when the doctored recordings are in place. We meet at the safehouse in ."

The three men nodded and set about leaving the establishment at designated moments.

Vala exited the room second to last, mentally reaching out to see if there were people in the first floor lobby. Thankfully it was empty at the moment so she set to casually head on over to the lift. She entered it with no small amount of anxiety, memories of what happened literally moments before still so very fresh. Her heartbeat increased, slightly thundering in her ears.

It's over, calm down, calm down. She chanted to herself, mentally urging the lift down faster.

As it finally came down, she took a deep breath and exited at a slow pace, the duffel bag she took from the room slung over her shoulder. She kept her head slightly down and didn't look at people, using the Force to make her presence unnoticable as she slithered past the crowd.

It was was a late hour of the night as she exited, looking across the road where several speeders were parked. Vala fished the ignition key out of her pocket and headed for a very old, rusty looking Aratech basic model. It's chassis was open, like on all of the vehicles of this particular model. The weathered look gave credence to the un-memorable look she was going for.

As she mounted it, she gave a cursory look around to see if she was perhaps being followed. Her senses didn't pick up on any danger so she turned the ignition key and brought the rust bucket to life. Adjusting the throttle she slowly made her way out it Sobrik, turning left on the intersection out of town, her destination the Sundari Flatlands.

Along the way, there were a few small, dotted farmhouses in the countryside. One of them them her unit had appropriated and secured several days ago. It had only the basic amenities. A refresher, two rooms and a kitchen/dining room/living room melded into one.

She parked the speeder behind the building and stepped around, knocking on the door in a pre-arranged sequence. Torn answered the door, checking behind her as she stepped inside.

"Who's here?" She asked as she stepped further in, depositing her duffel bag near the basic couch.

"All of us except Stick. He should be in soon." Said Burner as he stepped out of the refresher.

He and the others now finally looked like themselves. This would of course change again once they hammered out a plan of attack and moved in on the Factory.

Vala nodded, "you done in there?" Her tone was soft and she noticed Burner's attention shifting to her.

"Yeah, it's free, some water left still. You alright, Commander?" He looked at her suddenly deflated form as she turned the shadow generator off.

Her lilac eyes told him she was tired and possibly even a little broken which tugged at him. She looked a little ashamed too. All these feelings he as a clone knew too well, having to do things beyond a comfort level. Shameful, humiliating, frightening things. Yet to the outside world, they had to appear unphased. He was learning quickly that the same could easily apply to the Force wielders he and his brothers served with.

He stepped closer to the door a few minutes after she stepped inside when he thought he heard sounds from the bathroom. It sounded like sobbing? He wasn't entirely certain.

He knocked on the door. "You alright, Commander?" He asked again.

After a few moments of no replies, he looked over at his brothers, eyebrows raised. What should he do? They were never trained how to deal with a crying female. How would one handle this situation?

The others more or less helplessly shrugged at him equally as uncertain. Burner however knew he had to do something because they needed her head back in the game.

"Commander, I'm coming in!" He called.

No reply was given. So Burner took a deep breath, pressed the lock open and stepped into a steamed up room. The door slid closed behind him quickly.

The green skinned former Jedi was wrapped up in a towel, on her knees, her hands on the toilet seat. By the glistening of her skin he could tell that she'd been in the shower. Now, she seemed to be dry heaving and crying.

He realized then that she was finally processing what had happened and dealing with the disgusting molestation she had to endure for the sake of the mission.

It was strange to him that now more than ever, he felt a kinship with the woman and a deep understanding. He knelt next to the sobbing female and gently put his hands on her shoulders.

"Vala…" he said softly, silently marveling at how soft her skin seemed to be underneath his fingers. This was one of the rare times that they got this close and personal.

She grabbed a smaller towel from a nearby bag and wiped her mouth and her eyes with the clean side. The look in her eyes almost broke him as she turned to face him. He gingerly reached around her as he settled into a sitting pose and pulled her gently towards him. It surprised him a bit that she was compliant after how she was handled today but eventually, she leaned sideways against him, face buried into his neck.

He didn't quite know what to say, or where exactly to place his arms and hands so he kept them around her shoulder level as her shoulders shook. He could feel his shirt getting wet so he assumed she was crying again.

"It's okay, Commander. It's over, you did great." He said finally, leaning his head against hers.

Slowly after a few more minutes her sobs slowly subsided.

Before either could say more however, the earbud in Burner's ear came to life.

Burner, Stick. We just got a coded transmission from the 212th and the 501st. Stick's voice held urgency.

Burner lifted his head. "What's the message?"

Kamino's under attack by General Grievous and the Separatist forces.