A/N: September 23rd, Happy Birthday to me! :) This chapter is my Sweet Sixteen birthday gift to myself. Thanks for having the patience to put up with me this far, it's a HUGE confidence boost. I think it's time we gave Tann some attention, poor Ryder is still stuck on Kashyyyk. Kinda short, but after last chapter, I think we could all use a short one. I love wookies myself, but I don't think Ryder's as enthusiastic about them as me. I'm going to be totally honest with you guys, I have absolutely NO idea where this story is going. My fingers tend to develop minds of their own. They haven't failed me so far, so I suppose we'll just have to see where it takes us, any suggestions would be welcome.

Anyone who caught the reference to my debut story last chapter, you're awesome :)


Ryder POV:

"Anytime now, Tann." Ryder growled, firing several more shots. The Imperials had somehow managed to track them to the edge of the city. 'Guess there's more than just tibanna gas under those buckets.' he thought with a wry smirk. His twi'lek partner had assured him she would be there as soon as possible, but so far she had yet to arrive. Beside him, a wookie yelped as it was hit. It howled in pain as it gripped it's right shoulder, making the clone's ears ring.

"Suck it up, ya big baby." Ryder snapped at the wookie "It's only pain." The hairy creature snarled at him before turning it's attention back to it's injury. Ryder rolled his eyes and shot another stormtrooper. It felt good to be in an actual fight after so long. Ever since he'd started working with Tann back during the war, his life had comprised of guerrilla tactics and stealth. 'Fekking Republic Intelligence.' he thought as he blasted another Imperial 'Almost glad those days are over.'

A large hand suddenly grabbed the clone and jerked him backwards. 'Blasted wookies.' he thought with a scowl as a rebel lifted his feet off the ground. Since he didn't understand them, the beasts had resorted to forcibly moving him whenever he was needed somewhere else. Ryder grunted as he was roughly set on his feet back in the hut. The Orriorr cell leaders were conversing urgently among themselves, making wide gestures with their long, hairy arms. Tann might have understood what they were saying, but Ryder was at a loss. One of them- Ryder was pretty sure his name was Ralrracheen- waved him over with a large hairy hand.

"We must leave the city, CloneRyder." the wookie said. "We are outnumbered." It still freaked Ryder out, the speech impediment allowing the clone to understand the hairy creature without an interpreter. It came in handy, sure, but it was nonetheless unnerving. Turning his focus to the problem at hand, the clone thought about his conversation with Tann.

"My partner'll be here soon." Ryder told the wookies "If we can hold these di'kuts off long enough for her to get here-" As if on cue, his comm chirped at him. Ryder took the call without hesitation.

"You're singing my praises right now, aren't you?" Tann's teasing voice asked.

"I will be when you get us outta here, tail-head." the clone growled.

"Tut, tut, my dear Ryder." the twi'lek said "With that attitude, you're looking to get left."

"You wouldn't dare." Ryder snarled. Tann chuckled.

"I just made atmo, I'll be there as soon as I can." Ryder grunted an acknowledgement. The wookies- who were listening to the conversation- groaned in relief.

"Fire's too heavy for a safe landing, she'd get blasted." Ryder pointed out. As if to help prove his point, a round of blaster fire thoroughly pounded on the wall of the hut.

"Head into the jungle," Tann ordered "Activate your tracker and I'll pick you up."

"Got it." Ryder replied and disconnected. The wookies were already on the move, blasting stormtroopers as they fled. Ryder covered their retreat, taking down another three Imps. When they had reached the treeline, Ryder allowed a wookie to shove him into something called a quulaar (basically a sack) and held still as the creature had instructed. He felt the world shift as he was unceremoniously hoisted up. The wookie carrying him walked to the platform's edge, grunted and leapt off the platform. Ryder's stomach lurched as they plummeted through the trees before they caught a branch, slamming the clone against the trunk. He bit back a yell as they leapt to a higher branch, quickly scaling the tree. Branches and leaves slapped against the quulaar, making Ryder grunt in pain.

Time faded into an ongoing nightmare of climbing, grunts, swinging, falling and jumping. The clone held back a groan as they once again jumped, closing his eyes- not that he could see much anyway- and just focused on not puking. After what felt like an eternity, they finally came to a stop. It took Ryder a moment to find the way out of the sack, what with the world still spinning, but finally he was free. He shakily climbed to his feet, bracing his legs apart for balance and looked around. They were standing on a wide branch, with sunlight glistening through the topmost branches. It was pretty.

Ryder looked down at the custom-built commlink on his wrist. Tann had given it to him when they started working together, insisting he couldn't trust the Republic Intelligence standard issue mod. He smirked as he recalled her words.

"Sure the thing looks pretty, but it'll short circuit if you so much as wiggle your finger."

The clone ran his fingers over the controls, searching for the hidden switch. Finding it, he quickly activated the device. An almost inaudible hum reached his ears as the small tracking device began encrypting and signaling his location. Now they just had to wait and hope the Imps didn't shoot Tann out of the sky before she could get to them.

A few of the wookies were getting their wounds tended, they were kind of babies when it came to getting hurt, Ryder had noticed. 'Not so tough after all.' he thought, but didn't dare voice the thought. He'd heard the stories of sentients who'd lost a limb, or worse, to the hairy beasts, and he wasn't inclined to test their truthfulness. After a few minutes of quiet, the welcome hum of the Shady Lady's engines reached his ears. The branches above shook as the vessel drew closer on its antigrav repulsors. The boarding ramp lowered, the cool air of the ship's interior wafted outward, gently caressing the clone's face and ruffling his hair. It was like the Lady was beckoning to him, calling him home.

The wookies fairly ran for the ship, some letting out groans of relief. Once the massive walls of hair were onboard, Ryder walked up the ramp into the ship that was Tann's pride and joy, and was the closest thing he'd ever had to a home.


Tann POV:

Tann smiled at the roars and growls of the wookies as she lifted the Shady Lady above the trees. Before long, they were cruising above the canopy to the hidden hangar near Rwookrrorro. Ryder soon joined her in the cockpit. The clone flopped into the copilot seat with a sigh, stretching his long legs in front of him. Casting a sideways glance at her partner, the twi'lek woman smirked. His dark hair was sticking up at odd angles and he had at least two weeks worth of beard covering his jaw. Due to the angle, she couldn't see the tri-claw scars that she knew ran from his right temple to his cheekbone, remnants of a mission from way back before she'd met him.

"You look like poodoo." She said as a way of greeting. Ryder scowled.

"Apparently to wookies 'scruffy' is a compliment." he said, running a hand over his jaw "Please tell me we can go soon." Tann chuckled.

"Yep, soon as we drop them off at Rwookrrorro, we'll be outta here."

"Thank the stars." Ryder mumbled. Tann smiled and looked out over the treeline.

"Gotta admit it's beautiful here." Ryder cast an exasperated glance at her.

"Yeah, pretty. When you're not gettin' shot at, manhandled and stuffed into a sack." he grumbled. Tann laughed. An easy silence fell between them, both simply enjoying the other's company. Tann marveled at the life she'd lead since they'd first met. They'd done everything, from taking out CIS officials to blowing up shipyards, even that one time they'd broken into Nute Gunray's mansion to steal data. Now that had been an interesting mission. Tann had never seen that many stuffed ewok dolls in one place before, she actually still had the holo she'd insisted on taking. And now she was hiding things from him.

She still had absolutely no idea on whether or not she should tell him about meeting with the other clones at Polis Massa. Would he be angry for her not telling him sooner, maybe happy to have a handful of brothers back, or would he shrug and not care?

Pulling herself from her thoughts, Tann turned her attention back to reaching Rwookrrorro. She'd just picked up Ryder, he'd be furious if they crashed before they could actually get offworld.


Ryder POV:

Ryder glanced at Tann, covertly analyzing his partner. The little crease between her brows told him she was thinking hard about something. Something serious was on her mind, something that was bugging her, and she didn't want to tell him.

"Credit for your thoughts." Tann said. Ryder shrugged.

"Just thinking how nice it is to go on missions without dealin' with a fek load of paperwork right after." He lied. Apparently Tann believed it, because she let out a snort of laughter.

"Yeah, feels good to not have Venrin breathing own our necks, constantly demanding psych evaluations and efficiency tests." she quipped. Ryder smiled before scrunching up his mouth haughtily and looked down his nose at her.

"Miss Stark," he said in a reedy, nasally voice "It has been almost three weeks since your last efficiency examination. We must correct this error immediately." Tann threw back her head and laughed.

"You make him sound so masculine." she said, still laughing. Ryder smirked, she was right of course. Administrator Venrin was the sorriest excuse of a man Ryder had ever seen. There'd actually been a betting pool around HQ on how fast the old human could urinate in the clone's presence.

"Remember that time the kid from Records tried to ask out Cerise?" he asked. Tann nodded, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Ah, Alaric. He'd had a crush on her for so long." she paused, calling up another memory that made her smile grow "Remember how he ended up puking on her shoes?" It was his turn to laugh, now that had been entertaining to watch. Ryder had almost felt sorry for the kid. The female slicer in question had forgiven Alaric... eventually. Both had followed Tann to the Rebellion. Cerise after she had been fired for the same reason as Tann, and Alaric because of Cerise.

"We should meet up with them and Aria when we get back, maybe go out for drinks." Tann suggested. Ryder shrugged, not really caring either way. The other former agents and the pyromaniac were more her friends than his. He was pretty sure Alaric was still terrified of him.

"Maybe." he said noncommittally. Tann cast a rather pained glance his way before turning her attention back to flying the Shady Lady to the hidden hangar the wookies had built. They fell back into silence, occasionally hearing a grunt or a roar from one of the wookies in the commons. After awhile, Ryder began to feel his eyelids droop, exhaustion permeating his bones. Leaning back in his seat, Ryder allowed sleep to take him.


di'kut- idiot

A/N: Anyone who knows what a quulaar is, again, you're awesome. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a sack of woven fibers- or is it hair?- wookies use to carry their offspring ;) The translation for quulaar is actually baby sack. Quulaars are first mentioned in the third book of the Han Solo trilogy, Rebel Dawn. I own nothing but my OCs. As always, please review!