The Brothers:

D102/17 BBY, The Ghost

Hera turned off the holo comm projector and turned to enter new coordinates into the nav computer. Once her ship was zooming through hyperspace, she left the bridge with a pat to Chopper's dome on the way by, and wandered down the hallway towards the common room, a smile on her face.

She had a new mission from Ahsoka and some news from her new friend that made her very happy for her. Hopefully Kanan thought so too, since he was also invited to be part of the proceedings.

Opening the common room door, she found her rather handsome husband sitting behind the dejarik table, frowning in concentration over the belt and tool he held in his hands. "What are you doing, love?"

Kanan glanced up at her, smiling briefly at the sight of her and returned his concentration to his task. "I'm adding some new hooks to the back of my belt. Now that I've been practicing with it again, I find that I miss having my lightsabre with me all the time like I used to. I figured out that if I broke it down into two pieces, it doesn't look like a lightsabre anymore and it should be safe enough to wear it in the open."

Hera sat beside him, her shoulder and hip just brushing his and watched his dextrous fingers work with fascination. "That's wonderful, Kanan. I'm happy you've come up with a solution."

He smiled at her again, leaning over and pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth and then concentrated on the belt again. "Ben keeps his hidden under his robes, but as we both know, I don't wear them, so I got creative."

Hera smirked suggestively, lowering her voice a fraction. "I like when you get creative."

Kanan's head popped back up and he dropped his things on the table. "Oh, you do, do you?" He grabbed her around the waist and buried his face in the crook of her neck, nipping and kissing her slender neck as he growled playfully.

Hera giggled and buried her fingers in his hair, pulling out the tie. "Yes, love," she breathed as the sensations in her neck shot straight to her core. She was dripping within minutes.

Kanan sensed her excitement of course, and it only fueled his own growing desire. One hand shot up to her lek and stroked it while the other started working on her the fasteners of her flight suit.

Hera let go of his hair for the moment and helped with her disrobing. The moment that was accomplished, she found herself lifted onto the dejarik table and treated to a superspeed strip show while Kanan tore off his own clothes.

Kanan's head dove for her breasts, kissing both quickly and then latching onto a dark green nipple and suckling just the way she liked. Hera's fingers returned to his hair and held him as her eyes closed in bliss. Every suck and nip of his mouth sent another jolt to her weeping pussy. "Kanan," she begged after a few minutes of exquisite torture.

Kanan grinned around her delectable mound of flesh and reached down with one hand, plunging a finger into her warm depths, eyes near closed at the feel of her welcome heat. A second finger quickly joined the first and he moved his mouth back up to her neck, over to her mouth just in time to swallow a loud moan, and then over to a lek, kissing a path down to the end of it and sucking the tip into his mouth. She clenched around his fingers. Hard. Her body arched in a bow and his beautiful wife screamed.

Kanan was very pleased with what he'd accomplished so far, but he wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

Hera was still drowning in the aftershocks when she felt Kanan pick her up. She wrapped her arms and legs around him out of reflex and gasped as he entered her with a solid, unerring thrust. "Oh, Force," she moaned against his neck, biting maybe a little harder than she should have.

Kanan didn't mind. His hands were wrapped around her lush ass as he walked a few steps to the nearest empty wall, the movement of his steps moving him within her with each stride. He leaned his shoulders against the wall and braced his feet in front of him. "Put your legs down, darling," he whispered in her ear cone.

Hera shuddered and did as ordered, finding that she could stand on her own feet, since she was almost as tall as him. She was also now in control of how much they moved against each other. She rocked up and down, eyes heavy lidded, and threaded her fingers through his hair once again. "This is new."

Kanan managed a smug smile while trying not to let his eyes roll to the back of his head at the pleasure of being buried in her wet channel. "You did say you liked it when I got creative."

Hera's only response to that was to meld her lips to his, sinking her tongue in his mouth, and to clench herself around his hard length, making him gasp into her kiss. And then do it again and again.

After about a minute of that, Kanan knew he would go insane. He clenched his fingers on her rear end and flipped them around, pushing her up against the wall at just the right height so he could drive into her over and over, never taking his mouth from hers except to gasp in air every once in a while.

Hera shuddered with every thrust. He'd managed to find just the right angle that hit just the right spot every time. Soon, her body was tightening again, ready for another explosion.

Feeling the tiny shivers that indicated her climax was near, Kanan tore his mouth from hers and moved it to the lek he hadn't paid attention to yet. Three kisses and some gentle nips later, she cried out again as she climaxed around him.

He paused his movements and just enjoyed the feel of her climax, both physical and in the Force. It was an amazing thing and was almost enough to send him into his own if he didn't concentrate on holding it back.

When she was nearly boneless in his arms, Kanan held her tightly to him and walked once again, this time aiming for the galley door only a few steps away. He set her down on the counter that was the perfect height for this and started moving slowly in her again.

Hera stirred back to life enough to hold on for the ride as Kanan started thrusting with more purpose. HIs mouth was panting in her ear. "One more time, darling."

She shook her head. "I couldn't possibly."

Kanan reached down and circled her clit and she clenched around him again reflexively. "I think you can."

Five minutes later, Hera had to admit that he was right. She shattered again, quickly followed by his hot seed filling her depths, prolonging her climax.

Kanan's lungs worked like a bellows as he held himself over Hera and just felt. The aftershocks from both of them seemed to go into infinity if he focused on how their love affected the Force around them. He wouldn't say it was his favourite part of making love to Hera, but it was definitely in the top ten of his list of reasons why his love for her just felt RIGHT.

When Hera slumped against him, he kissed her forehead lovingly and withdrew himself from her depths gently. Gathering her up in his arms, he carried her to the refresher and started the shower, cleaning the sweat and other fluids from them.

Hera just let him. She was drained. And had never felt more loved. Kanan had exceeded himself today and she didn't think she could love him more.

Their clothing was set back to rights and Kanan was once again working on his belt.

"So where are we going?" he asked, having felt the ship jump into lightspeed. "New mission?"

Hera nodded from where her head rested on his thigh, her lithe body stretching out the remaining length of bench with her knees up and feet flat, as she pulled a datapad from one of the many pockets in her flight suit. "Ummm hmmm. We're going to Teth to scavenge through an old battle ground. Ahsoka thinks there might be some salvageable munitions in some of the downed ships and walkers."

Kanan hmmmed in agreement. "I wasn't there, but I heard that they left in a hurry afterwards, something to do with Jabba's son and Ahsoka and Skywalker under threat of execution by the ugly slug. It is possible that no one thought to clean up the mess. The battles on mostly empty worlds would be good candidates for scavenging. Ahsoka always was a clever one." He made a little sound of triumph as he finished his modifications to his belt and tested the top third of his lightsabre to see if it sat neatly in the brackets.

Happy with his work, Kanan put the belt on the table and settled back against the couch, fingers stroking Hera's lek fondly as he watched her skim through information on the planet of Teth on her datapad. "Find anything interesting?"

Hera glanced up at him, and her lips quirked up in a smile. "Aside from the fact that it's a jungle planet practically in the middle of wild space, the only sentients that currently live on the planet are Hutts." Kanan groaned exaggeratedly and she laughed softly. "The good news is that the sight of the battle is on the other side of the planet from where the Hutts have settled. The old B'omarr monastery is supposed to still be abandoned."

"Well that's something at least. We shouldn't have any annoyed natives to deal with."

"You mean like on that last mission where we had to run for our lives?" Hera said with a grin.

"More like a strategic retreat, but yes."

Hera rolled her eyes slightly before closing them in contentment as Kanan's hand continued to work its magic on her lek, lulling her into a very happy place.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while before Hera remembered the rest of her news. "After this mission, we're going to Alderaan via Tatooine. We need to be there in five days."

"Ohhh?"

"Ahsoka's going to surprise Lux with a traditional wedding ceremony, since her species' mating rituals aren't recognized as binding to most of the galaxy, and she wants us to be there. She thought you could be Lux's best man. She said you used to be friends."

Kanan grinned at the memories. "Oh, we did. I haven't seen him for a few years now for obvious reasons, but there used to be a time when we spent a lot of our spare time together. I taught him how to fence and he taught me more about astrology then I ever needed to know. He was always asking about Ahsoka. You should have seen him the first time he saw her. He was a goner, just like me for you. When Ahsoka told us she'd gone Lux hunting, I wasn't surprised at all."

Hera just had to reward him for saying he was a goner on her. The datapad was tossed on the table and her arms reached up and grasped his neck, pulling herself up and him down so she could give him a proper kiss.

Kanan blinked at her when she let him go and resumed her position with her head on his thigh and picked up her datapad again. "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

Hera smiled up at him again. "Sometimes, love, you say all the right things without even trying."

Kanan stared at her with a blank expression for a couple seconds while he replayed his own conversation and then a lightbulb went on in his eyes, and he flushed a little. "Ah. Well. That's good."

Hera just smiled to herself and continued to peruse the holonet.

About a day later, Hera flew the Ghost around the monastery built high on a mesa of rock. "What do you think? Should we start up here or in the jungle below?"

Kanan shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

Hera rolled her eyes at her very helpful husband. "Kay, the jungle it is. Might as well do the harder part first."

With some determination and the death of a few trees, Hera found a small bit of space amongst the dense forest to park the Ghost near the base of the mesa. She shut down the ship but left Chopper on standby in case they needed a quick pick up. Who knew what type of creatures lived in a forest like that?

Walking down the ramp, Hera and Kanan paused. "All right. If I was a wrecked walker, where would I be?" Hera mused.

Kanan nodded to a green vine covered lump just visible through the trees. "Buried, I think."

Hera raised a brow at the lump. "Really? It's only been five years. Surely we should be seeing some metal?"

Kanan shrugged, put his lightsabre together, and started hacking a path through the thick vines and undergrowth for them. "It IS a jungle. They tend to claim anything and everything they can."

"If you say so," Hera said as she followed her mate.

Within a minute, Kanan had them at the base of the lump of green. "Well, it's certainly big enough to be a walker. Only one way to find out." He started slicing at the vines, the blue laser of his sword making quick work of them. He smiled in triumph when durasteel was revealed. "Stay here," he said before he jumped up to the top of the lump and took an educated guess at where the access hatch was and started slicing again.

Hera crossed her arms and raised her brows. "And where else did you think I was going to go?" she called up. She was surrounded by dense forest and a rock wall. Her options were extremely limited.

"Sorry, stupid command," came back down from above.

Hera shook her head and waited for a couple minutes. "Well?" No answer. "Kanan?" Still no answer. Hera's fingers started to drum on her crossed arm as a hint of worry took over. She didn't know why she startled when Kanan suddenly landed beside her, but she did. "Did you find anything?" she said to cover up her unease.

Kanan shook his head. "It's been picked clean already. Absolutely everything of any use in there is gone. Even the seats. I think it's safe to say that any other walkers out here are probably in the same state."

Hera sighed. "We could still try the mesa above. Even if it's just to explore the old castle. That could be fun."

Kanan smiled. "Sure, darling. We're here anyway." He laced his fingers with hers and they followed the path he'd made back to the Ghost.

Hera flew them back up to the top of the mesa and parked in front of the monastery castle. As they walked towards the big front door, Hera glanced around. "Where are the battle droid bits? There's no jungle up here to hide everything."

"Already scavenged, I suppose," Kanan replied as they came to a stop in front of the very large and very closed door. The control for the door looked like it had been sliced through with a lightsabre, so that wasn't going to get them in.

"We could look for a back door," Hera suggested. "Something this big can't have just one door."

"Or... you can have a Jedi for a husband," Kanan said with a cocky grin before he closed his eyes and felt for the inner workings of the door and triggered it to open with a wave of his hand.

"Or there's that," Hera said with a smile at him.

They entered a massive open space lit only by the open door and windows high above. Hera came to a stop in the middle of the room and looked around. "It's kind of creepy, and... Is it just me or do you feel like we're being watched?"

Kanan was staring into the shadow of a doorway on the far wall, tension gathering in him. "It's not just you." He palmed his blaster and called out into the dark. "Come out and show yourselves."

"Why should we?" a male voice answered from the dark. "We have you vastly outnumbered. I suggest you remove your shebs from our home while you still can."

Kanan tensed further as his suspicions were confirmed by the voice. He'd known the dozens of similar Force signatures felt familiar. In a flash, he exchanged his blaster for his lightsabre and ignited it, the blue glow lighting the space around him. "Because we have a score to settle, Grey. You murdered my Master." Kanan's voice was low and deadly dangerous.

Hera gasped beside him and drew her own blaster, prepared to fight for him to her last breath.

"Now just hold on one shabla minute," another voice that sounded almost exactly the same said from another doorway. Kanan turned slightly as a plain white armour clad clone approached them slowly, hands up in surrender, his light blond buzz cut clearly visible. "Grey didn't do that under his own will. You can't blame him for it, Commander Dume."

Kanan relaxed his fighting stance only slightly. "Captain Rex. Ahsoka said you saved her life. Why did you not turn on her like every other clone did to their Jedi?"

Rex came to stand in front of Kanan, tense but keeping his stance calm and respectful. "Because we had chips in our brains, Sir. I had mine removed just before we went to Mandalore because of something Fives said. They controlled us, made us puppets, no better than the battle droids. There was an order from the Chancellor. Order 66. It was the order to execute all Jedi without question because they were traitors to the Republic. I know now it was all a set up so the Chancellor could take over the galaxy and become an Emperor. I know... we all know, that our Jedi would never do that. And my brothers are wrought with nightmares for what they were forced to do. I've been liberating my brothers whenever possible and bringing them here. All of us here have our chips out now, Sir. You don't have to worry."

Kanan put his lightsabre away and sagged slightly as he shuddered in the aftermath of the furious emotions that had taken him over for a minute. It all made sense now. All the hate he'd been harbouring for the clones faded away into the Force. "I'm sorry for your brothers, Rex."

A white and red clad clone emerged from the first doorway, followed by dozens of others from doorways all around them and even the second level above them.

"And I'm sorry for General Billaba, Commander," the clone said as he walked up to Kanan and took off his helmet.

Kanan studied the clone that used to be his friend. The golden brown eyes were filled with remorse and the scar that ran diagonally from his forehead to his cheekbone stood out starkly against his paler than normal skin. "I believe you."

The former Commander looked relieved. "Thank you, Sir. You have no idea what it was like. That order... we followed it... I followed it...as if under some kind of spell…as if I had no will of my own. No memories of the battles we had fought together. It was shabla awful, Sir, when I remembered everything again and realized what I'd done."

"It's okay, Grey. I understand now and I don't blame you anymore. And my name's Kanan Jarrus now. Please call me that." He swept his eyes over all of the clones, recognizing a few more, like Commander Wolfe and Echo, who he'd thought had died. "Where's Styles?"

Grey's face fell. "I couldn't convince him that something was wrong, Com...uh, Kanan. We haven't been able to get through to most of the brothers we've talked to. Their conditioning runs too deep. We didn't want to force them to leave the Empire's military so we left them. They're just stormtroopers now. Not brothers anymore. it's like the chip completely took over and they never woke up to who they used to be."

"I'm sorry," Kanan said softly at the grief in his friend's voice. "What about Commander Cody? Surely he was as smart as the rest of you?"

"I like to think so," Rex answered. "But we haven't been able to get near him. He's leading the 501st now, and as far as we've been able to tell, they go wherever that shabla Sith cyborg goes. We're terrified he'll sense what we're trying to do so we've not tried."

"Perhaps we should."

"We, Com...Kanan?" Rex asked, raising a brow.

Kanan grinned. "Sure. That's kind of what we do now; steal things from the Empire and make their lives as miserable as possible and... occasionally take pot shots at a Star Destroyer or two on the way by."

"Kanan!" Hera huffed. "Don't go exaggerating things again. It was only a light cruiser."

"And half a dozen TIEs, darling. Don't forget the TIEs." Kanan said as he looked at her with twinkling eyes.

Hera rolled her eyes. "How could I forget those? Chopper and I were fixing the Ghost for two whole days after that mission."

"We got the cargo, didn't we?"

Rex, Grey, and the others had watched the exchange with fascinated eyes, heads swinging back and forth in synchronization. "Kanan, Sir. Could you please debrief us on what you're talking about?" Rex cut in when it looked like the two were going to just stare each other down for who knows how long.

Kanan flushed slightly as he realized he'd gotten distracted by Hera's eyes again. (But really, who wouldn't? They were such perfectly beautiful emeralds in her perfectly beautiful face.) "Right. Sorry, Rex. First, this is my wife, Hera Syndulla, and before you ask, yes, she's the daughter of that Syndulla. Second, we work for Ahsoka, who works for Senators Organa and Mothma. We're starting a secret organized Rebellion against the Empire."

Rex looked at Grey on his left and Wolfe on his right. They both nodded slightly. Rex looked back at Kanan. "We want in."

Kanan smiled. "I thought you'd say that. Ahsoka will be very happy to see you. She misses you."

Rex's eyes went soft. "I miss the little Commander too. She was one of the best."

Kanan chuckled. "She's not so little any more. Girl's almost as tall as me now. She's definitely taller than you."

Rex's eyes widened and he laughed. "Figures. So many people called her 'Little Soka' for so long, she was sure to defy them by growing like a weed."

"She's not the only one," Grey added. "I remember when you were chest height on me, Kanan."

Kanan shrugged good naturedly. "What did you expect? I was thirteen when we first met."

"And I was eleven."

"Yeah, but you had an unfair advantage."

"It's not such an advantage now," Grey sighed. "I'm eighteen years old and I look almost forty. It's shabla depressing."

"Has anyone tried to stop the advanced aging?" Hera cut in.

All the brothers shook their heads in sync. "Not that we know of, Lady Syndulla," Rex said.

"Well, maybe someone should," Hera stated. "And call me Hera. Lady Syndulla was my mother."

"Understood. And thanks for the support," Rex said, liking Kanan's wife already.

Hera crossed her arms and raised a brow. "Would I be correct in guessing that you are the ones who scavenged this area already?"

Rex crossed his arms right back. "You would. And every other battle sight we could think of. We also have a couple of ships that we may have 'appropriated.' A brother's gotta eat somehow."

Hera looked up at Kanan. "I like them."

Kanan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her into his side, kissing her temple fondly. "I do too."

"Glad we meet your approval," Rex said with a roll of the eyes. "But what's the plan now?"

Kanan refocused again. "Now, we go to Tatooine and pick up Master Kenobi, and from there we go on to Alderaan. Ahsoka's getting married and we wouldn't want to miss that."

Rex raised a brow. "Lux Bonteri?"

Kanan grinned. "Who else?"

Rex chuckled. "Those two always were making googoo eyes at each other when they thought no one was looking."

"I know, right?"

Three days later, the Ghost appeared out of hyperspace and docked with the Reckless above Alderaan, quickly followed by two nondescript small freighters that would blend in at any spaceport. They docked with the Ghost and each other, making a chain of freighters.

Ahsoka greeted Hera and Kanan at the airlock of the Reckless. "So? How was your scavenging mission? Did you find anything useful and why do you have two more ships attached to you?"

Kanan grinned as he moved aside to make room for more people to step onto the Reckless. "Firstly, we picked up Ben, who seemed quite ecstatic to get off of Tatooine for a few days."

"I wouldn't say ecstatic," Ben said dryly as he joined the group in the hallway. "But I'm not exactly sad about it either."

Ahsoka smiled at her grandmaster warmly in greeting. "Thank you for coming, Master. It means a lot to me."

Ben flushed in pleased embarrassment at her words. "Yes. Well, Someone has to officiate this thing. It might as well be me."

"There's no one better than you," Ahsoka said, hugging him quickly.

Ben flushed a little darker and hugged her back. "Thank you."

Ahsoka pulled back and focused on Kanan again. "Now that you've distracted me nicely, do you care to explain the rest?"

"I could. Or you could see with your own eyes. We brought you one or two more volunteers for our cause. You might recognize a few."

At the signal, clone brothers wearing a variety of different colours on their armour or just plain white marched into the Reckless, lining the long hallway on both sides almost as far as the eye could see. Ahsoka gaped as soldier after soldier filed past her with a salute and then tears came to her eyes as the last one stopped in front of her with a tentative smile as he saluted her.

"Rex!" She threw her arms around him and laughed through her tears as he hugged her back with a chuckle.

He pulled back after a moment, her eyes even with his and the tips of her montrals topping him by a couple of millimetres. "You grew up. Kanan said so, but I didn't quite believe him."

Ahsoka laughed. "Had to happen sometime, Rex."