Hi guys! I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who is reading this and a special thanks to PrettyRecklessLaura for your comment on my last chapter.

Also just a disclaimer, I do not own Star Wars, it belongs to George Lucas and Disney, I just own my OCs Alexa Arnjard and Rendal Brask.

With that done, let's get on to the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy it!

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Alexa POV

I turned around when I heard the sound and took a cautious step towards it, it was then that I realised I wasn't alone and three bounty hunters sprung out at me, blasters blazing. I gasped as the shots whizzed past me and activated my lightsaber, quickly deflecting the bolts back at them.

Why does it always have to be me?!

As we fought I took note of their faces, one of them was a human, the other was a Rodian, neither of them were familiar, and the third was a Trandoshan, however it wasn't T'doshok.

"Skywalker!" I shouted, but before I had time to process it he was at my side, wielding his blade as he assisted in sending the bullets back at the bounty hunters.

"I thought we were going to stick together."

"At least I found them, right?" I retorted.

We just as we began to push them back, Ahsoka, Kenobi and Rendal appeared behind the bounty hunters, blocking their path. The men fired shots at them, but had to duck when the blasts rebounded off the lightsabers and flew back over their heads. When they realised they were outnumbered and surrounded the human and the Rodian lowered their weapons, but the Trandoshan gripped his blaster tighter and snarled at us.

"Where is the queen?" Obi Wan asked.

"Why should we tell you? We would die first." The Trandoshan replied.

"Oh really? Well that can be arranged." Anakin pointed his lightsaber at him threateningly.

"Anakin." Kenobi warned.

"We should at least give them a chance to reconsider. After all I doubt they want to spend the rest of their lives in a Republic prison." Ahsoka said.

As the Trandoshan's refusal to cooperate continued I study the other two. The human appeared to be the "strong, silent type" as he never said a word, but otherwise didn't show signs of submissive behaviour, but the Rodian on the other hand...

"You." I addressed him. "Tell us exactly where the queen is." I growled menacingly.

"I... Uh..." He didn't seem to know where to look.

"Tell them nothing!" The Trandoshan instructed.

"Tell me." I hissed, gripping my lightsaber tighter in my hand.

"N-No..." He replied unconvincingly as he looked away. I watched where his eyes were drawn and smiled under my hood before running in that direction.

"Alexa where are you going?" Rendal called after me, but I didn't stop to explain.

I ran through the hallways, using the clue from the Rodian and the force as my guide. I would find the Queen and then we could get away from here.

Rendal POV

I couldn't understand what had made Alexa run off, the bounty hunter hadn't told her anything, so how did she know where to go. I looked at Master Skywalker in confusion, but he kept his eyes trained on the bounty hunters.

My master then spoke to me, "Go with Alexa."

I nodded then quickly ran off in the direction I saw her go in.

I managed to catch up with her and as I ran beside her I decided to ask her, "How did you know where to go? The guy didn't say anything."

"Not with his mouth, but his eyes said everything." She replied in between breaths. "Come on, I sense we're getting closer."

I tried to reach out with the force, to see if I could sense her Majesty as well, and soon I sensed a presence just up around the next corner. "Just up there and to the left."

"Come on, we need to hurry."

We didn't speak again as we pushed ourselves to run faster, I pumped my legs faster and I was just starting to get ahead of Alexa when I nearly slipped over as we went around the corner. "Dang it." I sighed and forced myself to keep going. When we finally reached the door we had to skid to a stop and activate our sabers because there was a guard standing there.

"You have got to be kidding." I heard Alexa growl.

"Is this the best the Jedi have to send? A couple of kids?" The human woman laughed. Feeling embarrassed I glared at her.

"We're padawans. Get it right." I then thrust my hand forward and force-pushed her down the corridor.

I saw Alexa staring at me with wide eyes and a smirk on her face. "And you say you haven't got spunk. Come on, you get the Queen back to the other's, I'll hold her off."

I almost couldn't stop grinning to myself as I opened the door while I heard Alexa run past me toward the woman.

She thinks I have spunk!

When the door slid open I saw the Queen sitting on a metal slab with her back against the wall, when she turned and looked at me I saw the surprise on her face and I quickly explained, "I am Padawan Brask, the Jedi have come to rescue you."

"Thank you." She smiled and stood up, hurrying out of the cell. "Lead the way."

I nodded and quickly led her back to where the masters were still gathered with the other bounty hunters who were now unconscious with their hands caught in binders.

"We're glad to see you safe, your Majesty." My master bowed to her.

"Thank you, Master Kenobi, but it would seem that we are not quite out of the woods yet."

"Indeed."

"Where's Alexa?" Master Skywalker asked me.

"She's dealing with another bounty hunter who was guarding her Majesty's cell. She told me to bring the Queen back to you while she distracted the bounty hunter."

"And you left her alone?!"

"Well yes, she-"

"I'm fine." We all turned to look as Alexa approached, dragging the unconscious bounty hunter by her leg. "She put up quite the fight, but I was able to subdue her." Once she stood with us she dropped the bounty hunter's leg and faced the Queen, offering her a shallow bow. "Your Majesty."

"Forgive me, your Majesty, but I believe formal introductions will have to wait. First we need to get you to safety." My master said and we all agreed so we began to head for the exit. However, something was bothering me.

"What about T'doshok?"

"He's not here." The Queen informed us. "The bounty hunters reported to him using a holotransceiver."

"So he could be half way across the galaxy." I frowned.

"We will find him as soon as her Majesty is safe."

When we got outside and looked at the speeder we soon realised that we wouldn't all be able to fit in it, but thankfully we were able to find the speeders that had been used by the bounty hunters. So we split up. Masters Kenobi and Skywalker went in one, Master Tano and her Majesty went in another, and Alexa and I went in the last one.

"How did you learn to pilot one of these?" I asked Alexa as we followed behind the others.

"I learnt a lot of things before I became a padawan." She replied with a shrug. I was tempted to ask more questions, but I decided that it could wait.

Anakin POV

We were almost halfway back and so far things had been going smoothly, so I turned to my old master with a satisfied smirk. "It looks like we'll be able to return her Majesty home in no time."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Anakin, we aren't back on the ship yet and every time you say something like that the force seems to become determined to prove you wrong."

"Oh very well, but I think you're just being superstitious."

After all, what could go wrong?

Well I certainly found out soon enough.

A few minutes later my comlink beeped, it was Ahsoka.

"Anakin, what is that?" She asked, and I looked up to see what she was referring to.

"We've got a sandstorm in coming." I warned as I spotted the unmistakeable cloud of sand rolling towards us.

"How far is it to the spaceport?"

"We won't make it." I replied, knowing that even at the speeder's top speed we would be engulfed by the storm before we so much as reached the outskirts, but that didn't mean I wouldn't try.

I pushed the speeder as fast as it could travel, trying to get us as close to shelter as we could. As we sped across the sand I tried to keep an eye out for a rocky outcropping or a cave, anything that we could use to shelter from the storm that was about to hit us, but there was nothing but dessert around us.

I was about to tell Ahsoka to contact Alexa and inform her of what was going on when I turned my head to see that she had managed to catch up and was racing alongside us.

"We need to find somewhere else to shelter, look!" She shouted to me and Rendal pointed to where the city had just disappeared from the horizon as the sandstorm engulfed it.

I wracked my brain for somewhere else where we could get out of the storm, but nowhere presented itself, there was no where we could go. We were going to be trapped out here in the storm. With nothing else to do I brought the speeder to a halt and told the others to do the same.

"We have to-"

"We've got trouble!" Rendal warned.

"I think we've already established that." I replied, but I soon saw that he meant we had even more trouble.

Racing towards us were a group of speeders, the bounty hunters had come back for the Queen. Obi Wan and I jumped from the speeders and ignited our lightsabers as they started shooting at us.

"Ahsoka, protect her Majesty!" Obi Wan shouted to my old padawan who was already defending her from the oncoming blaster bolts.

Around us the wind whipped and the sand had already begun its terrible dance, looking beyond the fighting I saw that the cloud was fast approaching. As unlikely as it seemed I hoped that even these bounty hunters weren't stupid enough to keep fighting through the sandy tirade that was about to hit us.

Unfortunately for us it looked like they really were that stupid.

I saw Obi Wan advance and manage to disarm one of the bounty hunters before knocking him out and turning to the next who continued to fire at him.

"They don't know how to take a hint, do they?" I heard Alexa asked as I saw her slice through a man's arm, causing him to scream in pain.

"Apparently not!" I replied, deflecting some of the blasts back at the shooters before I saw one of them had a missile launcher. "Run!"

We scattered before the missile hit my speeder and I hit the sand just as it exploded. I didn't get the chance to look up as the sandstorm finally reached us and we were caught in the blinding storm. I squeezed my eyes shut and struggled to cover my face with my hands, trying to keep the sand from getting into my airways so that I could breathe.

It was impossible to hear over the wail of the wind, so I had no idea if they others were still battling, or if they were ok. I tried to shout, but if anyone heard me I couldn't tell. The sand and small rocks hit me like a barrage as fear rose in my throat at the thought of being buried.

Force, I hate sand!

Obi Wan POV

"Anakin!" I shouted, though the sound was muffled by my hands over my face and the wind. I received no reply, or at least not that I could hear, though I didn't doubt that the wind may have snatched the sound of any response away before it could reach me. "Rendal! Ahsoka! Alexa!"

I had managed to stay on my feet and I tried to shield my eyes from the sand while still hoping to find one of the others, however hopeless it seemed while we were still being bombarded. I couldn't hear or see any blaster fire, so I assumed that the bounty hunters must have given up to try and shelter themselves somewhat from the storm, either that or they had managed to flee. Either way, it appeared that we had more reason to be worried about the storm than the bounty hunters at the present time which was a relief. Still, I kept my guard up, the last thing I needed was to come face to face with a blaster.

It was in moments like this that I was able to fully understand why Anakin hated sand.

I continued to try and shout to the others, praying to the force that they were alright, but my stomach knotted as a bad feeling washed over me when I could have sworn I heard the remnants of a scream accompanied by the sound of a speeder engine carried by the whipping wind.