Hey everyone! Happy Star Wars Days :D
I hope everyone is doing alright! And I really want to thank everyone that's been following the story! You are the best!

I'm guessing you know the drill by now :P
Read and enjoy ^^

Chapter 10

"Why are you so excited?" Pion asked, seeing Turm almost skipping around in the dressing room.

"Why aren't you? We're taking on another squad! Isn't that exciting?" the bald clone grinned.

"Look, don't get ahead of yourself. We're just rookies – hardly even that," Rex sighed, but couldn't help the small smile on his face.

"That's some Bantha fodder! We can beat them, no sweat!"

"Oh please, don't go around yelling that," Bishop put a hand on his face.

"He has a point though. I am kinda excited," Jezdec admitted, licking his lips and smiling.

"As long as we don't do anything stupid, we'll be fine," the blonde said again.

"You always say that, but when have we ever done anything stupid?" Pion raised an eyebrow.

"All the time," came the answer as the cadets laughed.

With a final look at each other, they set their helmets under their arms and headed to the door which would lead them to the training ground.

"Finally," Mortimer was grinning as he saw the Chess Squad come.

"I was beginning to think you'd chickened out," despite his words, the men knew he didn't mean it.

"We wanted to give the other squad a fighting chance," Rex spoke, a grin on his face.

"Ahaha!" Laquin laughed wholeheartedly at the thought.

"I hope you keep up that attitude cadet. It suits you more than that 'by the book' one."

"I'll keep that in mind sir."

After a few seconds, the main door to the training ground was opened and five clones walked in, wearing their own training armor, with their helmet under their arms.

"And here they are," the Lasat grinned, seeing his team enter.

But as he looked back at the Chess squad, he saw their eyes wide and some mouths open. As the second squad came closer, they too seemed surprised.

"Is that you Rex?" came from the middle clone.

"Cody?" the blonde cadet blinked, not believing what he was seeing.

"Well… I see you know each other," Mortimer blinked, confused as well.

The two squads looked at each other, making sure they were seeing right, before Mortimer cleared his throat and the clones snapped to attention.

"Alright, since you know each other, it'll spare me the time to introduce you. Instead of that, we'll start right away with the exercises."

"Sir," Cody spoke up, looking at the Lasat. "With all due respect, I don't think this is fair," he continued, motioning to the first years. "They are at a clear disadvantage."

"Hey," Bishop called, arms crossed over his chest. "Just because your commanders and happen to be one year older, doesn't mean you're that much better than us," he smirked as Turm nodded.

"The enemy won't be some shiny new comer – if we ever want to be better, we need to face something which is better," Jezdec explained, a grin tugging at his lips.

"Don't count us out just yet. We're better than we look," Turm cracked his knuckles.

"Cody, we can handle ourselves so don't think about going easy on us," Rex gave a firm nod.

"Who knows, maybe we're even better than you," Pion shrugged.

The Ghost Squad and Laquin just looked in amusement, surprise, challenge and recognition. It's not every day you meet cadets with that kind of spirit.

"Well then, prepare for us," Cody grinned, a hit of tease in his eyes.

"This should be an interesting week indeed," Mortimer whispered to himself, seeing the fire in the cadets' eyes and their craving for battle.

"Jet, we need eyes in the sky! Bull, make sure they don't get past the perimeter. Lander you have the cannon. Jewels, you're with me on the front line," Cody dished out orders as they walked on the training ground.

It was a rocky terrain, not much cover but a lot of holes. The giant rocks or pillars were perfect for snipers. It was hot, despite the fact it was night, so they wanted to hurry up and finish it quickly.

"How do we do this?" Pion asked, looking over his shoulder, checking their backs.

"Like we always do – as a team," Jezdec grinned as they rolled their eyes.

"We can't underestimate them. Given what we said, they won't do it to us," Rex spoke, hands on his blasters as they were huddled inside a hole.

"Are we going with the usual?" Bishop asked as they shared a look.

"I don't think that's a good idea… It's too predictable," Rex said to himself, thinking of an idea.

"Well, what then, Captain?" the comment from the bald clone earned him a glare.

"Pion and Jezdec – head around the field. Bishop, take Turm and cover the main road. I'll go and greet them," the blonde explained, looking at his team.

"What are you, crazy? They'll blast you in a second!" the sniper looked with open eyes.

"That's the idea," Rex smirked. "I'll draw them out, and then you two," he looked at Pion and Jezdec, "Jump them. I don't think they'd send all of them so the others should come as back up. Bishop and Turm will join you in then," the plan was crazy; they all knew it, but it made sense. It was a rather different approach than usual, but then again, they were up against different opponents.

"Alright then," the muscles and sniper sighed and got to their feet.

"This better work," the bearded one warned before vanishing into the darkness with the medic.

"I hope it works," Rex muttered to himself and started heading towards the 'enemy'

Rex swallowed as he walked in the darkness, looking around himself every few seconds, blasters in hand and ready to fire. They were set on stun anyway, so there wouldn't be any permanent damage. His steps made small clouds of dust rise from the ground as the wind blew ever so slightly.

He stopped suddenly, when he thought he heard something. His body tensed as his fingers moved to the trigger, eyes scanning his surroundings. In a heartbeat, he heard a blaster go off and fired himself, not knowing if he hit anything, but feeling himself get hit. The ground felt sort of soft as he collapsed onto his side, seeing two figures move around.

"Who did we hit?" in his pain, the blonde couldn't make out who was talking.

"I got a bad feeling about this…" a small smirk was on Rex's face as within moment, more blasters could be heard, followed by a 'we need back up!', but it was in vain, as two more bodies hit the ground.

"Rex! Rex are you okay?" Pion was by his side in a second, helping him sit up.

"Ouch…" was all he made out, his whole body numb and head swimming.

"Found them!" came a call from behind as Jezdec saw three Ghost Squad cadets come, before seeing a bright light and feeling the stun blast on his chest.

"Got one," Jet smirked, aiming his rifle at the second clone, when a blast missed him by a hair and instead hit Lander, who stood behind.

"I got the other one!" Bull grinned, seeing Pion fall, before hearing his teammate yelp.

"What the-!" looking up, Jet saw another blast coming, avoided it and fired back, hearing a hiss of pain as something feel but he rolled into someone.

"Boo!" Turm called, firing off the carbine and stunning the enemy sniper.

"You!" Bull growled as the two had a standoff.

Everything was still for a few seconds, before both of them pulled the trigger, two grunts were heard, two thuds and plenty groans of pain as every cadet lay on the ground.

"I wasn't expecting it to end in a draw," Mortimer spoke to the ten clones before him.

Pion had proceeded to heal and check Bishop, but found he only had a few bruises from his fall. Bull and Turm would feel their hits for a day, since they were so close. Jet had an aching head, but would live. Rex, Cody, Lander and Jewels were the least hurt while Pion himself just felt tired.

"What can I say – we weren't prepared for their tactic," Cody admitted.

"A tactic which was complete idiocy in my book," Laquin added, a glare sent to the blonde.

"But it worked didn't it?" Rex defended, a sheepish smile on his face.

"A leader never puts himself at such stakes."

"I'm no leader!" that earned Rex an 'are-you-kidding-me?' look from pretty much everyone.

"Either way," the Lasat sighed, eyes closed.

"That covers it for today. The rest of the week will be joined exercises, since these prove very effective. Always try new things boys."

"Sir, yes sir!" the cadets nodded, their pain forgotten as they smiled at each other.

"Rex," Cody called as the two squads were about to head off.

"Yes?" Rex straightened, not sure what the other man wanted.

"Good job out there today. I haven't ever seen something like that," the older clone complimented.

"T-Thanks," the blonde muttered, never getting praise like this before.

"But don't think you can do it again and get away with it. We learn pretty quickly," Cody added with a grin as he patted the younger cadet on the chest.

"We improve with each session. Next time, we'll be better," Rex spoke, a grin on his face as well.

"I look forward to that!" the commander waved goodbye and followed his team.

"Making new friends are we?" Jezdec joked, lightly punching him in the shoulder.

"You could say that yeah," Rex chuckled, turning and heading to the freshers.

"So, what did they say?" Mortimer asked, standing outside, under the roof of the Kamino base.

"They'll let me finish this year…" Ciel sighed, looking up at the dark sky.

"I still don't get why they want to get rid of you or why you need a week…"

"They need to get used to someone else being their trainer. The cadets can get attached to one. Besides, I need to head off planet and get some things. As for the Kaminoans… They see my ways as… ineffective. Apparently the clones are supposed to be like droids – cold and heartless," the anger in the Lannik's voice made the Lasat tense.

"If it helps, I think it's a good thing. They were pretty good today," leaning on the wall, Laquin looked down at his small companion. "And you're not the only one who wants them to 'feel' human. El-Les, Mira, I and a few others have been working on it, just not as openly as you."

"That makes me glad… I just hope the cadets end up with one of you as their new trainer."

"…I could-" Mortimer started, but cut himself off.

"You want?" Ciel looked up at him, eyes filled with hope.

"…I could try and get the officials to transfer them to me. Seems they have a good relationship with my Ghost Squad. They'd make a pretty good batch."

"If you do that – if you can make it happen – I would be eternally grateful."

"Yeah well, seeing how much you care about the cadets makes me see it too. I should be grateful to you, for showing me the way."

"What are friends for then?" Termer gave a sad smile as he looked at his friend.

"You plan to tell them or am I going to have to break the news again?" Laquin knew that look and locked his jaw.

"I'll tell them… I just hope they'll understand…"

"They will. They respect you very much you know. Even promised to get better for you."

"As I said… they are different."

Well, that's it for now! What did you think of the cadet-face-off? I wasn't sure what or how to do it, so I know it's not perfect ^^''
Also (since I clearly forgot to say this before!) if you have any questions ask away! Be it in a review or PM - I don't bite :P

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and if you did, leave a review :D
Till next time~