The sun on the planet rose for all to see it was dawn. LAAT's from the Resolute landed to transfer more men to collect the dead from the field. Taran and Ahsoka personally escorted a bound and cuffed Vindi to an awaiting transport ship that would take him back to Coruscant to await trial for his crimes.
"Many of our men died here today," said Obi-Wan to Anakin, Rex, and Cody. Boil and Waxer were with the other troopers tasked with collecting the dead.
"But their sacrifce won't be in vain," said Anakin.
"How long will the Seps go at doing these things?" said Rex.
"I don't know Rex, but we have to stop them everywhere they rear their ugly heads," said Anakin.
"Did you find any trace of Dooku or Bane?" said Obi-Wan.
"No, it appears he and the bounty hunter have gotten off planet. There was a fighter missing in an underground hangar," said Cody.
"Great, they got away again," said Anakin.
"Don't worry Anakin, we'll find them again soon," said Obi-Wan. "At least for now we can recover from our losses and see to it that this doesn't happen again."
"You did good with the saber throw," said Taran while she and him were escorting Vindi. Thankfully, his mouth was tied, but by the sounds coming from his mouth he wasn't too thrilled about it.
"Thanks," said Ahsoka. "He's all yours boys," she said to the clones as they grabbed Vindi and threw him onto the ship. She turned back around to Taran and said, "But I learned from the best."
"I try to be, but I'm not the best," said Taran.
"Well, besides Anakin, to me you are the best," she said as they started to walk back. They got back to them just as Boil and Waxer came back.
"Sir, we've gotten all the bodies and destroyed all the lab equipment in there," said Waxer.
"Good, have all the bodies been accounted for?" said Obi-Wan.
"Yes sir," said Boil.
"Taran, if you mind?" said Obi-Wan.
"Not at all," said Taran. Concentrating he slipped out the earth from under the piled bodies so that they stood in a mass grave. Then he slowly placed the gravel back on them, making the dead clones graves their final resting place.
"Thanks Taran," said Anakin.
"Anytime," said Taran.
"I hope that never happens again," said Rex when they had gotten back onto the Resloute.
"Yeah, next time they should use a creature instead. Won't that be fun Rex?" said Taran. Rex just glared at him like he was crazy.
"Kid, what is with you and these little comments?" said Rex.
"I just do that to get on your nerves," said Taran. Rex just chuckled.
"Kid, when it comes to getting on my nerves, you take the cake," said Rex. As he walked away Taran went back to the hangar to see R3.
"Hey buddy, you miss me?" said Taran. R3 whirred and clicked happily. Taran didn't have to look on the communicator pad to get that answer.
"Hey, did you get those blueprints done while I was away?" said Taran. R3 went over to a nearby table and handed him three pieces of blue paper with schematics over them.
"Thanks, these new fighters will give us some edge. But this is just the rough draft. I'll send this to the Council to see if they like it," said Taran. He rolled them up and placed them in his starfighter. He said bye to R3 and began to walk back to his room. When he got there he saw Ahsoka laying down on his bed, reading some of his bending scrolls. He sat down next to her.
"Hey, what are you doing?" said Taran.
"Just going over your Breath of the Dragon move," said Ahsoka.
"It's an advanced Firebending move that allows to shoot flames from your mouth," said Taran.
"I'm glad you didn't do that when we were kissing, I would have been so mad," said Ahsoka.
"Yeah, I would have looked even ten times worse than when you beat me up," said Taran. Ahsoka laughed and put the scroll down. She gazed at Taran's eyes, the green eyes that so captivated her.
"Why is it our lives are so dangerous?" said Ahsoka.
"I guess it's that 'not everything's silver and gold' lifestyle," said Taran. "And a Jedi's life is difficult."
"Yes, but still, it's like everywhere we go someone's trying to kill us at every turn," said Ahsoka.
"Soka, in a war someone's always going to try and kill you. It's just how life is," said Taran. Ahsoka sank into the bed and looked at the ceiling.
"I sometimes feel like your the wise one. Here I am, after almost a year into the war, and you just arrive and can take these kind of things better than I can," she said. Taran layed down on the bed next to her and cradled her in his arms.
"It's okay. Just because of that doesn't make you a weaker person. THe person who shows emotion through this is the stronger person," said Taran. He kissed the top of her head.
"You use to be such a happy, carefree person. What happened?" said Ahsoka.
"I fell in love with somebody," said Taran, looking at her lovingly in her eyes.
"Do I know her?" said Ahsoka.
"You'd like her. She's smart, funny, talented, very aggreasive at times, but still a very strong, friendly person," said Taran.
"And how do you feel about her?" said Ahsoka, knowing the answer.
"Like this," said Taran, kissing her passionately. Ahsoka wrapped her arms around him and accepted it. They had been through a lot together, but nothing they couldn't get past. They knew in the future things would get rough, but for now they wanted nothing but to keep each other safe.
