Hey guys! I know its been awhile but I promise that the wait is just the delay school has caused. Anyway I just wanted to say thank you to anyone whose reading. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed you guys make me smile! Anyway...

This section of the story is about Rio before she was sent to become Anakin's padawan so at this time Ahsoka Tano was still his padawan. Rio is also developing into the woman she will become during this stage. So enjoy her being brash and cocky for this little but of the story.

Anyway I hope you enjoy.. It looks like this chapter and next chapter are going to be about Rio's backstory. So hand on the main action will come back soon.

utreekov= fool/idiot
kriff/kriffing= fuck
frag/fragging=fuck/fucking
Shinie= New clone trooper
Bantha fodder = nearly equal to bullshit
Osik = shit
A pain in the choobies= pain in the ass
di'kut= idiot
shebs= ass
verd'ika = soldier (but it's an affectionate way, almost like you would call a child)
sithpit= hell hole
Haar'chak= nearly means shit/fuck
jari'eyc = ugly
slana'pir verd'ika= get out little soldiers
Ke barjurir gar'ade, jagyc'ade kot'la a dalyc'ade kotla'shya= train your sons to be strong, but your daughters to be stronger.
Shiny boy= slang for arc trooper or commando
Bug slut= an insult
Ni copad at kyr'amur gar. a Ni liser't.= I want to kill you, but i cant.
alor'ad = captain
ad'ika = little one
choobie=ass
mir'osik= dung for brains
k'uur= hush
cyare = love
osi-yaim = useless despicable person
gar cuyir = you are a
ad'gotar = sex
vod = sister
cyare = admire/love

"You can't tell me you're happy about this."

"I'm not, but the council's made their decision."

"Since when have you ever given a kriff about the council?"

"Since we lost many of our own during the confrontation of Geonosis."

The teenager crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head lightly, causing some blonde hair to reflect the strong lights that were suspended from the ceiling. Her temper was close to flaring and she bit back the urge to snap at her master.

"We're gonna be leading these… clones..." Her voice unintentionally hardened at the word. The whole process of how they were created seemed unnatural to her. "To their deaths." All at once, the redheaded woman rounded on the girl and grabbed the beaded braid that hung close to her neck and pulled their faces together.

"If you ever call them that again… I will make you do five hours of meditation periods for seven weeks in a row." Real terrifying fear jolted throughout the girls system and she knew her master felt it as well by the smirk that graced her features. "Glad to know you understand Rio."

"When you word it like that Tula. It's fragging hard not to."

Rio tried not to stare at the identical faces of the fifty or so dark haired men who stared at the wall behind her. Their eyes stared straight ahead, ignoring her as she wandered with her hands clasped firmly behind her back, her gray orbs observing every aspect about the clones. The padawan's force presence reached out sub concisely towards her master, who was currently in another room being prepped with the Captain of this clone company. Letting a tentative smile spread across her face, Rio tapped one of the men in front of her on the shoulder. His gaze broke from the wall and his eyes met her own and narrowed in what seemed like a slight challenge.

Sticking her hand out towards his Rio broke the silence of the hall with a few quick words. "I'm Rio, what's your name?" The dark haired mans face didn't move a muscle or even so much as twitch at her question, but after a few moments of silence he answered evenly.

"Ma'am my name is CT-2543." Her head tilted to the side in confusion, had he chosen this name? Why would anyone want a number for a name?

"Is that your real name or?"

"We were given numbers Ma'am." The padawan's mouth opened and she breathed out an "ohh." Before she had a chance to say anything more a door behind her slid open and out came her master, trailed by a man. His facial structure was the same as all the clones in front of her, but his hair was an unruly tangle of dark curls with the tips dyed a dark gray. The expression of Tula's face was cold fury and as the red haired woman walked by she forced the dark hilts of Rio's light sabers to her hands. Before the padawan had time to protest Tula spoke calmly and clearly to all the men but directed most of her anger towards the man she had just walked out with.

"If you're so scared of how my padawan will do in the field Captain Jep… Then fight her. I can guarantee she won't use force powers or do anything underhanded." Rio was taken aback by Tula's statement. This man didn't think she was strong enough to take him on? Her muscles arms flexed unintentionally as she looked at the man dead in the eyes as he stood in front of her.

This'll be an easy fight. The padawan thought to herself, after all, he's just a clone and I'm a Jedi. So Rio waited for the Captain's answer, waited for him to agree and start the fight she knew she would ultimately win.

"I don't think that'll be necessary General. I'm sure the youngling can handle herself." His voice was gruff and nearly identical to CT-4523's. Rio's eyes swiveled towards Tula who gave her a quick nod and without warning threw two black metal shapes in her direction. Without hesitation she used the force to grab the metal hilts in mid air and clipped them to her belt. Rio smiled to herself at the angry tone Tula's voice had when the woman spoke to the clone Captain again.

"Get the men to the hangar, we move for Alderaan in two hours." Rio watched her master make to leave but something held her back. Jep seemed to realize this as well for the clone captain held his tongue while she was silent. Rio's legs moved her towards her masters frozen position but she stopped moving when she heard words come from Tula's mouth. "I may be a Jedi. But that does not mean I'm worth any more than any of you. Neither is my padawan. We are all equals. I expect you to call us by our first names. No titles. And when I ask for your names. I mean names. Not numbers. My job during this time may be to win a war, but it is to win a war with as little loss of life as I can prevent… That includes you as my men. I am also fluent in Mandalorian just as Rio will be in a few months. If you need anything don't be afraid to open up your mouths and talk to me." With those words, Tula strutted out of the chamber leaving some bewildered looking men behind while Rio laughed behind her hand.

Rio could not think of a worse way for her patrol with Deadshot, her chosen clone companion, to end. The flashing of her green blades forced down droid after droid while the acidic smell of their melting metal drifted into her nostrils. The padawan had to force herself not to gag at the rank scent. A cry came from Deadshot who had taken a hit to the calf, he was now on the ground clutching his leg directly in front of her. Rio dove in front of him and blocked the shots that came at his hurt form. Using one hand to click on her comlink while the other continued blocking the blaster bolts or droids that came into her path or line of sight.

"Raze, get one of the medics to my scouting location. I got a hurt trooper about a klick to the west of the base."

"Copy that Rio. Sending a med head your way." Her comlink line went dead and her focus became solely on protecting the trooper at her feet. The muscles in her arms had grown sore from her constant slashing and parrying motion that she had been repeating for the past twenty minutes even before Deadshot had been hit. Thank fully her clone friend had shut his mouth so she could focus on keeping him alive in peace. The cool trail of sweat as it dripped down her exposed midreff was one of the few things she was still able to sense fully. Deadshot had finally stopped clutching his leg, which dripped crimson blood and was now firing his DC-15 at the droids that seemed to pop up in the dense Alderaan mountain forest.

"Soldier you should be takin' it easy." She spoke with an unnaturally hard edge to her voice that was caused by her exhaustion. Even though she'd been training as a padawan for years, her training couldn't compete with real wartime experience.

"No Ma'am, I can't afford to stop. Just like you can't afford to stop. Mir'osik… The clone cussed as both their eyes saw the large squadron of basic B-1 battle droids that appeared from the brush. "Commander leave me. I'm expendable. You can get away from them for sure. I'm just holing you up."

"First, it's just Rio. Second. Shut your trap di'kut. We'll both make it out if you keep firing that weapon." The man's eyes widened at her tone and she heard him chuckle breezily at her use of the word "di'kut". What could she say? The clone… Correction. Men. Had grown on her in the few weeks they'd spent securing Alderaan from the Separatists. "Now stay here and don't move or make yourself a bigger target."

"Wouldn't dream of it Rio." The blonde flashed him a grin and thumbs up. With her green light sabers swinging, Rio propelled forward and immediately engaged the droids she collided into. Five were cut into pieces just seconds after she initially engaged them, all it took to destroy droids was a quick upward cut or downward slash, all Childs play.

After dispatching the majority of droids from this unit, the familiar force presence of Tula washed over the girl as she continued her solo war against the few remaining droids.

"Bout time you pulled through." Rio screamed over her shoulder as the black painted bucket of Jep appeared right beside her with rifle in hand.

"Miss me already Verd'ika?" His voice flitted to her ears and she couldn't suppress the grin that appeared on her face. After cutting down a few more droids that had wandered into the clearing, Rio turned to look at Jep for a moment to see how he was faring. Currently the Captain was in a face off with two drids but dropped them into piles of scrap seconds after firing two shots from his DC-15 rifle. Rio turned around and groaned aloud at the formation of a new pantaloon of droids heading her way. A flash of teal and blue directly to her left let her know Tula and her sabers had joined the fight. Her master gave her a quick wink from one of her dark black orbs, and then moved her head backwards as she tried to signal Rio to look back to where Deadshot had been. Fearing Tula was trying to convey her clone partner was dead Rio whipped her head around as quickly as possible.

The padawan did this in a way so her shifted body could still block the shots from the droids aimed her way. Rio's gray orbs located to Deadshot who was being lifted up by some medic clones. She was about to shout a "thanks" to the medics when her eyes picked up movement from behind the group in the trees. Metal flashed and Rio was left with an overwhelming feeling of sense of dread. Something, or someone, was coming.

Two flashes of red confirmed her suspicions. "Ventress?" She questioned herself before running towards the medics and Deadshot. Rio wanted to put herself in between her men and this mystery person, especially if this was Dooku's assassin that the council about had warned her and Tula about. The adrenaline was pumping through her veins and her ears pounded from her heartbeat. Rio sent her distress through the force in the hopes that Tula would either sense the distress she was pouring out or sense Ventress's own dark force presence.

As the padawan moved closer towards the tree line, a dark figure holding the two light sabers became visible. A woman appeared, sauntering her way out of the woods wearing her customary tight body suit and leg wrappings. Even though Rio had never seen Ventress in person, she automatically knew that this was the same woman who she had seen a projection of from Yoda. What Rio hadn't expected was for the woman to be bald, with facial tattoos that looked strikingly familiar, and large crystal clear blue eyes. Her dual sabers had a hilt of silver and black that was curved in a way that made Rio assume using them in a fight was an uncomfortable experience.

When the older woman was just a few meters away, Rio stopped and held up one of her light sabers so the woman would pause.

"Come here to get your shebs kicked?" The blonde asked, trying to intimidate the assassin with her words. Ventress's tattooed face sank into a deep scowl and her eyes raked down Rio's slim form.

"You'll regret those words youngling…" The words were spat and so hard that a twinge of uncertainty hit Rio in the pit of her stomach. She was worried because they only people she'd ever dueled with were Tula, a few other masters, and the occasional padawan learner. None of them had ever been aiming to try to kill her like this woman clearly was going to try and do. After all, she was just a padawan learner, what hope did she have of beating this clearly more experienced fighter. Even though her doubts, Rio refused to let either her force signature or her facial expressions betray her fear. Instead, a casual smirk dawned her face.

"And you'll be choking on those words." Then, she charged. Ventress clearly wasn't expecting this and seemed to be caught off guard by the padawan's aggressiveness. After the first few initial swings where Rio was forced back by Ventress's defensive work, the woman started her own attacks. A near hit to her lower ribs made Rio's nerves start to build at each passing second the fight continued on for, her eyes wandered to see her men and Tula still fighting wave after wave of incoming droids. A sharp pain in her leg let the padawan know that her distraction had cost her a hit to the bottom of her leg. Frag, she's a hell of a lot stronger than I first thought. Her comlink started beeping furiously and with a quick swipe of her shoto blade, Rio managed to push Ventress back just far enough to give herself time to answer.

"Rio! Permission to engage the fight with you? We have a visual!" It was the voice of one of her men, thinking quickly, Rio imagined what a fight against Ventress and the clones would be like. They'll die… The padawan thought quickly, with her decision made, she answered.

"Request denied. She'll slaughter you." Ventress threw back her head and laughed before putting in a few of her own cool words.

"I'm about to slaughter you youngling." That's what you think witch, Rio thought to herself. Anger started seeping into every pore of her body. Anger formulated at her lack of skills, at the fear of being unable to protect her master and her men, anger at being weak. So she took a breath and turned off her comlink. With a sadistic smile, Ventress leaped at Rio who dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way before the red light sabers embedded themselves into the ground she had been standing on moments before.

Her blonde hair whipped around as she spun to attack the older woman, whose attacks were becoming less calculated and more predictable as her frustration grew. Some hope flittered back into Rio's body when she noticed Ventress's impatience. Taking a step backwards Rio forced jumped herself over Ventress; landing behind her and immediately beginning another series of attacks on her. Somehow, Rio managed to get the upper hand and with a swift roundhouse kick, her booted foot knocked one of Ventress's red light sabers out of her hand. Which left her holding only one curved blade to Rio's dual sabers.

"Arrah!" A scream so vehement left the assassins mouth that Rio was momentarily taken aback. It gave the woman enough time to jab and flash at Rio so quickly the padawan had barely enough time to block. An over the head slash from Ventress pushed Rio towards the ground, her dual light sabers holding off the attack as the blonde's slashed ankle burned in agony from the pressure. I don't want to die here, Rio realized, so I won't die here.

Using this newfound inner strength, she forced pushed Ventress off and flipped backwards, kicking the older woman in the face as she did so. A victorious smile lit up her face as Ventress stumbled backwards clutching her head where Rio had landed her hit.

All at once, a pressure started clawing it's way towards her throat. Rio started gasping as her throat began to involuntarily crush itself. For a brief moment the padawan had no idea what was causing this rebel of her own body, that was until she saw Ventress holding up one of her skeletal hands. Rio's green sabers flickered and eventually her fingers let go of their black handles, they dropped to the floor at her feet while her hands grabbed at her own throat. Ventress was eyeing her with an expression of rage and satisfaction, but that's not what made the padawan start laughing her neck was constricted.

"Why do you continue to mock me?" Ventress hissed as she force closed her hand, constricting the blonde neck even further.

"Mi-Might wan-wanna turn round a-and fin-find o…" A new voice that was so full of anger joined their own.

"I suggest you put down our girl." Jep called out to Ventress. The faint locking of weapons was heard as ten more troopers joined Jep with their weapons all raised at the assassin. Almost as if it was on cue, Tula stepped forward with her azure blades ignited and her eyes narrowed. Rio felt the grip on her throat tighten until all she could do was gag and sputter, only the tops of her toes were touching the ground now.

"Put her down you kriffing tub of bantha fat!" From the way his bucket turned towards Tula Rio knew the Captain's mouth was dropped open at her choice of words. No one was used to Tula swearing, and if she wasn't being choked Rio would have laughed at Jep's surprise.

"You let me go and I want run her through." Ventress reasoned, the woman realized there was no getting out of this situation any other way.

"Put her down and leave or I'll run you through." Tula growled.

"And we'll blast the osik outta you." Jep added, his voice had taken on a lower more dangerous tone that Rio had never heard him use before.

The pressure on her throat decreased and her body felt weightless for a moment before her legs hit the ground hard and she crumbled into a ball clutching her throat. The sweet taste of air poured into her lungs and for a few moments the padawan focused only on breathing. The warm hands of Tula were on her in seconds and Rio knew without even opening her eyes that her master was examining her for fatal wounds. Tula's force presence was so full of concern that all the blonde could think about was her master worrying about her.

"Tula it's fine. Just feel a little chokey."

"Rio I wasn't the worried one. These di'kuts were." Tula gave her a small blinding white smile as she gestured to the clones who stood behind her, most were looking away or rubbing the back of their heads. Jep on the other hand was faux whistling.

"Was not." He retorted to Tula who just rolled her eyes in response.

"Where's Ventress?" Rio asked. She couldn't help but be slightly concerned no one bothered to check on the whereabouts of the woman who nearly killed her

"Ran off into some of the trees dead West. She's heading back to the Separatist camp." It was the clone Sergeant Mase who answered her question.

"No she went this way, straight towards our camp." Jep teased looking directly at Tula as he spoke.

"Stop being a child Jep. We don't have time for this." Tula countered, slugging him in the arm as she did. It was Rio's turn to roll her eyes before she put in a comment of her own.

"I love your banter. But can we please head back to base? I wanna check on Deadshot and get some pain meds."

"Deadshot's fine. Jackson and Cora radioed back." Jep explained, he was looking directly down at her through his helmet and Rio imagined she could visualize his eyes in the visor.

"I still wanna check on him. He's my scouting buddy." The captain chuckled at her statement, smirked and then in a matter-of-fact tone stated.

"With all due respect Rio, any of these men would beg to be your scouting buddy." Tula looked down for a moment and Rio watched in confusion as her mentor mouthed something to herself. I'll ask her about that later. The blonde made to sit up and stand but her slashed ankle wouldn't allow it.

"Frag…" The girl cursed to herself as she tried to stand again and succeeded until she tried taking a step, that was when her ankle gave out and she collapsed back onto the grass covered ground.

"Let me help verd'ika." Jep moved forward and handed his gun to clone who name Rio thought was T.T.. All at once, Jep's armored covered arms were hooked under her body as he lifted her up and began carrying her towards the Large Republic base. Tula followed behind the group like a mama rancor follows her young. A squeak of protest escaped Rio's lips when one of the troopers in front of her nudged her ankle accidentally, Jep nearly started screaming at the soldier but instead opted for an angry whisper.

"Aye, mir'osik. You trying to hurt the general?"

"Of course not sir! We all like the she-demon to much."

"Thanks for confirming my suspicions boys…" Rio replied. Tula was still oddly silent. Usually, she and Jep were constantly at each others throats, bickering or messing around with the other. When their small clone company finally arrived back onto base and filed into the cramped hallways. Jep dropped Rio off at the med room before dragging Tula off to have some private captain and commander conversation.

The clone medic Cora made his way over to her and assessed the damage Ventress's blade did to her ankle.

"Looks like you'll just have a jari'eyc scar Rio. Nothing major. Keep the bacta patch on and rest. Most likely you'll be fine in a few days…" It was good news. It was even better news considering that it was made by a light saber.

"Thanks Cora. Can you thank Jackson for saving Deadshot's choobies today for me?"

"Of course commander." With those words Cora walked out of the medical facility and Rio was left to stare at the ceiling, that was until the door slid open again.

"Rio." It was the unmistakable voice of her master. The padawan sat up in the bed and faced Tula head on. "We're moving to the base on Ryloth."