How did he manage to do it?
Asaji Ventress had been betrayed and lied to so many times in her life, the bitter, jaded, night-sister thought that nobody could break down her barriers, that no one could make her laugh, or love, or feel hope once again. She thought the Jedi inside of her had died a long time ago, the hopeful, kind and optimistic Padawan she once was, gone and slain completely by Count Dooku. Yet here, in the harshest place, surrounded by the harshest people, where her guard should have been raised to the maximum, she was losing all her barriers as well as her clothes, as Quinlan Vos of all people, slowly peeled them off.
"We know which warehouse they're stationed in now" he told her, thanks to his abilities, they'd located the bounty hunters at long last, right now they were once again squatting. This time in an abandoned house, with a degraded double bed, that Quinlan and Ventress had taken, while Ahsoka had slept downstairs. Double-checking she was fast asleep, Quinlan had made his way upstairs and the seduction had begun.
"This could be our last day you know?" he said, leaning in closer to Ventress.
"It could be" she responded, trying to stop the flush on her cheeks, as the handsome Jedi drew nearer "Quinlan, we can't possibly think of..."
"Why not? Don't you want too?"
"No" Ventress snapped "and isn't it against that code of yours and..."
"As if I've ever obeyed that" Quinlan mused "Come on Ventress, I've been with a lot of girls. But none have stuck around longer than you, none I like more than you..."
"You think those cheap words are getting me into bed?"
"Well, you're in one now" Quinlan reminded her "Besides, who cares if I'm some sort of scumbag just after you-know-what, by tomorrow, if we die, it won't matter anyway".
"and if we live?"
"Well then..." Quinlan said happily, he leaned in for a kiss, that Ventress surprisingly returned, when they broke apart, he quietly mused "Well then if we live, we'll get to do this again and Count Dooku and his cronies will be dead, that will make you just as happy..."
They began to kiss more fiercely after that, Ventress having no time to speak. But something felt wrong and off... maybe it was something he'd said? But her doubts soon melted away as she did into Quinlan as they made love that night. Ventress couldn't deny she had missed this, all of this, what it felt like to truly let your guard down for another person, she lay back and experienced pure bliss and when it was over, she clung to him like a vice lock.
"I don't think your council will approve of this" she eventually said "Not only sleeping with a girl, but a former aid of Count Dooku..."
"Ah, my goal in life is to piss off the council, believe me by tomorrow, you'll see what I mean".
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'm not gonna go easy and play like a Jedi would" Quinlan responded "That's what I like about you Ventress, you know what's it's like. Ahsoka knows what it's like. It's why I'm glad I finally met you, the real you. Not the puppet Dooku was using..." he sighed there.
"You... really… really want to be with someone, like me?" Ventress nearly whispered "I've... I've done horrible things and..."
"It's okay, we all have" Quinlan said "All this crap about good vs evil, Jedi vs Sith, Republic vs Separatists. Everyone is painted out to be so black and white, to be honest everything is a lot more grey than that. Believe me, we will get vengeance for you tomorrow Ventress..."
Again something felt off, but Ventress had a good idea of what it was as she gazed into Quinlan's eyes.
"Maybe I really don't want this anymore" she said, trying to explain her unease "Maybe I'm actually worried that... that I'll lose either you or Ahsoka, we could... have a life after this? Maybe keep in touch and settle down when this war is over, or even fight alongside each other"
"Now I like the thought of that!" Quinlan raved as his eyes brightened "We could do that and... oh... oh no..."
"What?" Ventress inquired, lifting her head up, she saw a silent Ahsoka standing in the open doorway of the bedroom. Ventress hadn't exactly been quiet when Quinlan was doing his business and she imagined the bed shook quite a bit. It also didn't help there was nothing to cover them and both of them were laid against each other stark naked on this bed, their clothes discarded at the side.
"Well" Ahsoka said after a long, mortified silence "That happened"
and with that she walked off, holding her head in her hands, as Quinlan and Ventress laughed, obviously embarrassed, but also just as giddy, it really felt like something real was flourishing from all of this, something that Ventress knew she wanted to protect.
Maybe she was turning back to the light after all.
"REX!"
"SHOOT IT! SHOO... ARRRRGGHHHHH!"
"MASTER SKYWALKER, DO LOOK OUT, OH...OH NO HELP ME R2...!"
"GET BACK! GET BACK I DON'T WANNA HUR...!"
The wookies' attack was relentless as they kept on coming, the clones forming a circular formation and concentrating fire on those that dared to charge forward, Anakin, Rex, Doormat, Jesse, Kix, Appo and 2 other clones were all that were left standing. 3P0 had been dismembered and was currently having his head kicked around like a football, whereas R2 had been kicked over couldn't jettison himself back to level ground with them, because of the stampede of the locals going past him.
"THEY'VE TURNED SEPERATIST!" Rex concluded harshly, ducking a blaster shot that would have torn off his head "THAT'S WHY THE DROIDS ATTACKED, IT WASN'T TO KILL US! IT WAS TOO ALERT THE WOOKIES ON WHERE WE WERE!"
"WE WERE LOOKING FOR THEM ANYWAY! WHY DO THAT!?" Anakin demanded to know, as a wookie came dangerously close to ripping the lightsabre out of his hand, "REX WE... ARRGGHHH...!"
"GENERAL!" Came a dozen yells, but it was no good, the Wookies had finally managed to swarm Anakin, he was fighting them off with all his might, but as he did a triumphant roar came from above the remaining group. They looked up to see a sharpened tree trunk flying down towards them... a trap the wookies must have set up while they were busy fighting! The trunk would impale them or knock them down in seconds if something wasn't done!
"KEEP SHOOTING!" Rex roared and on instinct he dropped his blaster and held his hands up to the rapidly approaching trunk, he felt something fly from his fingers once again, but the force of the oncoming branch was so powerful, it knocked him to the ground. He got to his feet (his arms aching terribly) to see the trunk crash land a few feet away from their fighting position. The wookies howled in frustration to everyone else it had appeared the trunk had hit an invisible wall and collapsed just short of it's target. Yet despite the blaster fire that rang onwards, there was a curious silence from his brothers. Rex looked up to find every single one of them (despite still firing at the masses approaching) gazing at himself.
"Did you just use the force!?" Kix inquired asking the obvious.
"Where... where did you learn to do that!?" Jesse said.
Rex knew he'd hate it, he hated it now. The way they were looking at him in a new light, as if he was something special, as if he was something... different. Something to be admired, something better than them all... he couldn't handle it. He accepted Doormat's hand and lifted himself to his feet, he picked up his blasters as he did and gazed at a moment at his stunned squad.
"GET BACK TO SHOOTING, I'LL EXPLAIN LATER!" He growled, as the men under his command obeyed him, yet just when he thought that would be the only instance another cracking noise, followed by another trunk soaring towards them.
"REX!" Doormat exclaimed.
He could pass a one off occurrence, but now he had to act again. Raising his tired arms, he prepared himself this time and managed to keep himself on his feet, yet the clone collapsed seconds later. Exhausted as he could be, the weight of the trunk was too much. But once again it had collapsed in safe distance of the group, as they fired away. Anakin was finally able to cut away at the wookies that had swarmed him, he saw Rex's work and muttered "Nice job..." at the captain, who felt himself flush under his helmet, especially now the howls of the natives were dying down, the assault was over, they'd lived.
Panting heavily, Anakin looked down at the one armed Wookie, the clones had wasted no time in realising this weakened Wookie was their prisoner. They set to work in sedating and tying the thing up against a tree. As the other clones worked away, Rex watched on, but found himself with company when the Wookie was secure.
"Alright, I'm force sensitive, I don't know how" he said harshly to those around them "I just know I am, okay? The council told me to keep it too myself".
"But why?" Jesse asked, "Having you using the force sir, it's freaking awesome!"
"It's not, it's... it's dangerous" Rex reasoned.
"Rex, it's fine this will stay between us" Anakin said "Yeah, I knew as well men. But out of respect for our captain here, I kept it secret".
"But why!?" Kix asked, more angrily than Jesse had done "Sir, if you had these powers, it was your responsibility to use them! To save more men...!"
"I only learned I had these powers just after the mission at Ringo Vida" Rex admitted "It was how I was able to save Tup's life, but I don't want anyone thinking differently of me just because of this... this thing. I'm just like any other clone".
"Yeah, a clone that can use the force!" Jesse raved "I didn't even think that was possible, what does it feel like Rex?"
"Exhausting"
"Exhausting or not, we can use this" Kix reasoned "What do you think of that men, hey Doormat, what do you think about it?"
Doormat had been busy collecting the bodies of his fallen brothers and was starting to dig a small grave for them, when he was asked this question he turned to the others and simply muttered "I dunno, it's great... I guess..." and he went back to his business. Rex was surprised by this, out of everyone he thought Doormat would be the most excited and most vocal when learning a clone could use the force. Yet he hardly seemed bothered, in fact he seemed very grouchy which was unexpected of him. Granted, they were brothers to bury, but...something else was wrong with the kid and Rex was curious to know what.
"This is all well and good" came the sassy voice of 3PO from a bush, where Anakin pulled out his detached and still chattering head "But can someone please put me back together!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself 3PO" Anakin joked to some faint laughter from his men "Relax, I'll have you fixed in no time, besides we need you to translate for us. This Wookie has a different dialect to the others, he's hard to understand, we need to speak to him" Anakin said, glaring at the prisoner.
"and we need to get some answers".
That day was yet another dull one.
One thing persisted on Cody's mind as he walked from place to place all around Kamino, doing the usual checks and observing his fellow brothers, not really thinking about them at all, but his mind was firmly fixated on the three, very different clones who had the answers he so desperately needed.
So when he retired to his room that night, as soon as the door was closed and sealed behind him (Cody was sure to drag a table across the door, just for extra security) he sat down on his bed and waited. Not even a minute had gone by, when the air vent duct had been pried open and the three fugitives squeezed themselves back into his room.
"Thank you for saving us yesterday" Boss said
"Well, make it worth it" Cody replied gazing at the three of them.
"Start speaking, what the hell is actually going on!?"