Well, Here you go: The first mission Ahsoka and Carter go on together. Will it be a success or failure? How about you read it, that might help you find out.

Chapter 4

The Sedawan

"That's definitely the Sedawan," Ahsoka said from the gunner's seat of Anakin's Y-Wing starfighter. She glanced at the cruiser, nothing short of a diplomatic ship with minimal weapons systems. Whatever had caused the commotion on the ship, the Sedawan had had no chance against it.

"The ship was being escorted to Coruscant by Master Luminara," Anakin replied. "I sense she is in grave danger."

"You ready to enter the hangar?" Carter asked through the radio. Unlike Ahsoka and Anakin, Kento and his Padawan were flying separate Delta-7 Jedi Starfighters.

"You first," Anakin replied. Carter responded by banking the ship steeply to the left, swooping into the hanger. Anakin's fingers tightened on the controls, and he zoomed in after him.

Ahsoka sprung out of her seat, activating her lightsaber and holding it in her signature Shien grip. She noticed Carter climbing out of the cockpit of his fighter and activating his as well. He opened up in an Ataru stance, but quickly shifted to a crude form of Soresu.

"At ease, Carter," Kento chided. "You, too, Ahsoka." Ahsoka deactivated her lightsaber and clipped it to her belt.

Kento put a hand on Carter's shoulder and spoke to him quietly. Ahsoka strained to hear what he said. "I don't want you using Soresu on this mission unless you are in dire need of it. Whatever happened here, it was enough to make an experienced Jedi Master go missing. You aren't efficient enough in the form yet to be able to defend yourself with this amount of power."

Carter nodded. "Okay," he said, then spoke loudly for the others. "Let's go kick some tinny butt!"

Anakin chuckled at the term, and Ahsoka guessed that Carter, much like herself, had spent a lot of time with clones on active duty. She led the way down the vast ship's halls, disturbed by how eerily silent it was. The sound of metal striking metal stopped her in her tracks, promptly causing Carter to bump into her.

"Hey, what-" he began, but Ahsoka cut him off.

"Shh!" she hissed. "Do you hear that?"

"I don't hear anything."

"Listen!"

The sound was getting louder, closer. Ahsoka glanced back at her master, who grimaced. "I know that noise," he said. They all did.

"Sounds like an SBD patrol," Kento said grimly.

"Supers?" Carter winced. "Those things have blasted rockets attached to their arms!!!"

"We can take them," Ahsoka said. "They're AI."

Anakin smiled down at his Padawan. "That's the way to think."

The marching came closer, until around the corner marched three Super Battle Droids. "Hey- intruders!" one of them shouted. "Shoot them!"

"Wait!" Carter said, a smile playing at his lips. "As the high ranking patrol that you are, you'd receive much higher praise if you take us to your leader."

"Um, but our orders are to kill anyone who is not authorized."

"Orders? A good soldier obeys their heart, not their orders! You'd be known as the best of the best for capturing intruders like us," Ahsoka said, catching on.

"Besides," Anakin said. "We lost our authorization papers. We don't know our way around the ship yet, so if you could take us to your leader to get us some new ones, we'll be sure to give you higher rank."

"Err… well, in that case, we're glad to help. This way." The droids turned around and walked back the way they came.

Carter and Ahsoka exchanged a glance, and she could tell that he was holding back hysterical laughter. It was all she could do not to burst out with snorts of laughter herself. Even Anakin wore a smirk on his face. Kento's thoughts were unknown however, as his face was shrouded by his hood.

"Just through this door," the droid said.

Carter stopped. "Okay, I just can't take this anymore," he said. "Master, please?"

Kento sighed. "Fine, Carter. Do it quietly."

Carter whipped out his lightsaber with a flourish and cut through the first SBD, then stabbed the second one. He rolled to the side and swiped at the third's legs, then struck at its chassis. "Not bad, huh?" he said, grinning at Ahsoka as he deactivated his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt.

Ahsoka smiled. "I guess. I think I could have done better."

"I think you could have, too."

"At least your Padawan has some humility," Anakin said to Kento. Ahsoka felt her cheeks get hot.

"Not so much humility as pointing out my mistakes, Master," Carter said. "I accidentally destroyed the door controls." He pointed to a sizzling control panel on the wall next to the massive doors.

"Ah, well," Anakin said. "There's more than one way inside." He drove his lightsaber into the door's metal.

"Just not as inconspicuous," Kento grumbled.

Carter offered a pained smile. "Sorry, Master."

As soon as Anakin had cut through the door, the four Jedi leapt through the hole. The bridge was empty aside from a lone figure standing at the head. Upon hearing them, the figure turned to face them. It was a woman, with elaborate designs painted on her face and an intricately woven robe and headdress. In her hands was a humming red lightsaber.

Ahsoka heard a snap-hiss sound to her right. She half turned toward the source of the sound to see Carter standing with his lightsaber lit, in an Ataru Stance. His master stood behind him, holding his yellow lightsaber in the simple, but effective, Shii Cho style. She was bout to follow their actions and take out her own weapon, but she found herself and the others moving back as if invisible hands were pushing against her, the result of the woman utilizing the Force.

The mysterious Force user darted through a nearby doorway, the blast doors closing behind her. Carter stood, blood dripping from his nose, and charged after her. He skidded to a halt as the doors closed completely, and turned to face the others. "I'm guessing that wasn't Master Luminara," he said. "You okay, Ahsoka? Master Skywalker? Master Marek?"

They all nodded. "Just a bit banged up," Anakin said.

"What about you?" Ahsoka asked. "Your nose doesn't look too good."

Carter grinned. "It'll be fine. I get hurt every mission I go on, so don't worry about me."

Kento chuckled. "He's right. Once we thought he didn't get hurt, then we hit a bump in a speeder and he bit his tongue."

Carter laughed. "I remember that. It hurt."

Anakin and Ahsoka grinned. "Smooth," Anakin said. "But we don't have time to reminisce, we need to follow whoever that was."

Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber and stabbed it into the blast doors. While she was carving a neat circle into the metal, Kento remarked, "She looked like a Nightsister."

"Nightsister?" Carter asked.

"They're a Force Sensitive race from Dathomir," Anakin explained. "They practice forms of the dark side, but their techniques differ from those of the Sith. In fact, we don't even know how to classify them."

"How about you just call them Nightsisters for now?" Ahsoka asked, kicking the durasteel of the door through the hole she'd cut. Carter smiled.

"Ladies first," he said. She rolled her eyes and dove through, followed by the other three.

They found themselves in the engine chamber. At the very end of the room. stood the Nightsister, her fingers flying furiously over a control panel. When she saw the Jedi, she typed in a few last commands before running through yet another door.

"She's going to the hangar!" Ahsoka said.

"Then so are we!" Carter said, running down the catwalk to where the Nightsister had stood moments before.

"Carter, wait!" Anakin said. "She's overloaded the-" he was cut off by the sound of an explosion. The vast engine, nearly 100 meters across, engulfed in flames, and a visible shockwave of the blast radiated out. The catwalk collapsed.

Ahsoka turned to see Carter using Force assisted jumps to ascend the falling pieces of platform. He really was an expert at that, probably due to his training in Ataru. She tried to mirror his movements, attempting to get to the platform above them, which led to the hangar doors.

Carter landed on the platform and turned to face her. "The ships coming down around our ears! Come on, Ahsoka!" The two Masters were already on the platform and running for the doors with their lightsabers out, attempting to catch the Nightsisters. Ahsoka continued upward. "Come on, Ahsoka, you're almost there! Jump!" Carter urged.

Ahsoka pushed off the falling piece of metal she was standing with her legs and the Force, preparing to land on a second piece that would provide her enough clearance to jump to the platform. But the second piece wasn't there. Instead, she hung suspended in mid air for a moment before falling back down again. There was nothing she could possibly land on.

"Ahsoka!" Carter shouted. He leapt over the side of the platform and gripped its edge. He interlocked his fingers with Ahsoka's, and hung on for not only his life, but for hers too. "I've got you," he said, his voice quiet. The ship lurched, and for a moment, she slipped out of his grasp, before she reached out and grabbed his forearm. With another shudder of the Sedawan, Carter's fingers slipped from the platform's railing. With a strength that surprised Ahsoka, he swung her up onto the dais as he fell down.

Ahsoka screamed his name and reached for him, but he was too far away, and falling rapidly. She took a deep breath to calm herself and felt the Force flow through her.

Carter stopped falling abruptly, and hung about seven feet below the platform. Ahsoka struggled to keep the Force strong in her as she slowly brought him up to the platform. As soon as he reached the edge and grabbed onto it, Ahsoka collapsed, weakened by her use of the Force.

Carter hoisted himself up onto the platform and sat on his knees next to Ahsoka. "Wow," he said. "Intense."

Ahsoka smiled, breathing heavily. "Thanks," she said. "I owe you my life."

"I owe you mine," Carter said. "How about we just call it even and forget about it?" He grinned the sparkling white grin that caused her heart to skip a beat once more.

"Come on, Flyboy," she said, standing. "Let's get to the hangar." She took his hand and ran down the catwalk with him to the door their masters had passed through.

"Flyboy?" Carter asked.

Ahsoka didn't answer. At the doorway, the two nearly ran into Kento and Anakin. She quickly let go of Carter's hand, fearing it might give the Masters the wrong idea. "We were afraid you two didn't make it," Anakin said. "What happened?"

"Just a few boring life or death situations," Ahsoka said. "What about the Nightsister?"

Kento shook his head, which, surprisingly, was free of the hood for once. "She escaped via one of our starfighters just as we entered the hangar."

Carter's face went pale. "Not mine…"

Kento chuckled and placed a hand on his Padawan's shoulder. "No, I'm afraid it was mine."

Carter breathed a sigh of relief. "Good." Then realizing what he had said, he added, "I mean, it's good since she didn't get a heavily modified starfighter… you know?"

Anakin laughed. "We know what you mean, Carter. It's fine. However, we need to figure out how we're going to get four of us out of here with only three seats between our fighters."

Carter grinned. "I said I'd modified mine. I've got some extra cockpit space."

"What did you do to get that?" Anakin asked, his eyebrow arching.

"I cut out the weapons cache," he said. "A small person could fit in there, I guess."

"The only 'small people' here are you and Ahsoka," Kento said. "Obviously I can't fit."

"We could just do a little switching around," Ahsoka said. "The Masters in the Y-Wing, and the Padawans in the Delta."

"Makes sense," Anakin said. He ran back through the doors, followed by Kento, Carter, and Ahsoka, and into the hangar. The starfighters, aside from Kento's, lay exactly where they had been when they left them.

"Sorry if it hurts your back," Carter said as Ahsoka huddled into the small space behind his pilot's seat.

"I'll be fine," she said, her breath hot on the back of his neck.

"We're, uh…" Carter said into the radio. "We're ready when you are."

"Then here we go," Anakin replied. The Y-Wing rose and flew out of the hangar.

Carter's fingers tapped several buttons on the dash, and the Delta shot into space. The hyperspace ring lay just outside the Sedawan, and he docked. "Where to, Master?"

"Coruscant," Anakin said. "The Nightsisters have stolen a supply of powerful lightsaber crystals, and we need to find out why."

"We'll meet you at the Jedi Temple, Room of a Thousand Fountains," Kento added.

"Roger that," Carter said, pulling a nearby lever. The stars blurred past them as they shot into hyperspace.

"'Roger that?'" Ahsoka asked. "You sound like a droid now."

Carter chuckled. "No, droids say 'roger, roger.' Not 'roger that.'"

A/N: Gasp! Ahsoka has a nickname for Carter? They have to share the small cockpit of a starfighter? Things must be about to get fluffy!