Protectiveness:

Kwymar Sector…

The trip from Kestos Minor to the wormhole took less time than any of them were expecting, even with Captain Typho pushing the engines to their limit, but the twenty minute trip still felt like an eternity to Ahsoka.

She spent the time alternating between literally vibrating in her chair with impatience and reminding herself that she was a Jedi and that she was supposed to be calm and in control at all times. The still moments were decidedly less frequent than the impatient ones.

Ahsoka had only one real thought on her mind, and that was to get her Rex back, no matter the cost. She barely acknowledged Padmè when she tried to reassure her that everything would work out, only sending her friend the briefest of grateful smiles for the support before her mind went back into planning mode.

Of course, it was the same plan, over and over, because there really was only option available to her as far as Ahsoka was concerned.

She had to follow Rex into the wormhole and hope she came out the other side in the same place and time as he had.

Wormholes weren't very common, and not a whole lot of scientific study had been done on them because of how dangerous they usually were, but what she did know was that a newly born wormhole could be very quirky in regards to where and when they appeared. The longer a wormhole stayed in the same place, the more dependable it became. There was one in the Mid Rim that had been around for thousands of years, and if you really wanted to save time and were feeling a little suicidal, you could almost safely use it to travel to the other side of the Mid Rim in only minutes instead of using the hyperlanes across the core, which took more than a day. Ninety percent of the ships that had been known to attempt the wormhole had successfully come out the other side. The rest had been spit out in pieces.

Even with those odds, it was a very rare few who dared to tempt fate so.

Not even Anakin had been willing to try it, and that was saying something. He said he had too much to live for to risk doing something quite that stupid. She, Obi-Wan, and Rex had all been relieved to know that he actually did have a line he wasn't willing to cross.

Ahsoka was going to cross that line now, whether he liked it or not. The only tricky part was going to be getting herself onto a ship that stood more than half a chance. It's too bad I can't borrow Padmè's ship. This thing is about as sturdily built as a ship can get. But that just wouldn't be fair to her. This is the fourth ship she's purchased in two years, thanks to bad luck and Jar Jar. Her family is rich, but not that rich. And the Nubian taxpayers had a fit when they found out that somebody had accidentally charged ships number two and three to the senatorial expense account.

So… yeah. Not taking Padmè's ship. But I'm definitely going to have to appropriate something.

Her thoughts and anxieties were derailed when everyone else in the cockpit gasped. The Togrutan girl looked up to see that the wormhole was now in sight. The swirling entrance was massive, at least as big as a planet, and somehow visible against the deep black of space; possibly because it was a little bit less black. Whatever it was, the Force felt like it was yelling at her through a megaphone as she focused on it, which made her snap her connection to the Force closed again with a shudder. Definitely not doing that again.

Hovering a respectable distance from the hole was the rest of Anakin's fleet, and flying towards it, a few straggling escape pods were still making for the safety of the Venators.

"Kriff," Typho breathed, slowing the yacht down to the equivalent of a crawl.

"I'm afraid I don't see anything abnormal," Threepio side apologetically. "My photoreceptor's were not designed to register different shades of black. Is it bad?"

"Oh yeah," Padmè's head of security said.

The girls were all silent, too busy being awed to speak or respond.

For a few seconds, anyway. And then Padmè broke the silence by turning around and looking at Ahsoka pleadingly. "Can you… tell where Anakin is now?"

Ahsoka immediately felt like a selfish nerf for not thinking about anyone but Rex. Of course Padmè would be worried about Anakin. I should be worried about Anakin. And Obi-Wan. What's wrong with me?

After giving herself a mental slap, she nodded to the senator once and closed her eyes so she could concentrate on her bond with her Master. She opened her eyes a few seconds later, a grim smile on her lips and her gaze already connected to the appropriate escape pod that was just descending into the hangar of one of the Venators. "He's in the pod disappearing into the second ship from the left, and he's fine. He's even taken over the piloting of the pod."

Padmè and her retinue smiled in relief. "Thank you. Make for that Venator, Captain, if you don't mind."

"With pleasure, My Lady."

Earth…

The patrol unit made a sweep over the area around the coordinates given. It didn't take long for them to find the crashed, yellow painted, and still smoking PAC in the ruined jumping ring of Never Too High Stables. There was a herd of horses nearby, some grazing on the spring grass, but most were still lined up at the fenceline, gazing at the wreckage curiously.

"Ooooo, someone is not going to be happy about that," the younger officer said.

His partner snorted in agreement as he flew the armoured patrol vehicle around for another look. "I don't see anyone in the wreck. Probably took refuge in the barn over yonder. Doesn't look much like a hunter's vehicle though."

"Traffic control did say that NASA was interested in it. I can see why. I think it looks more like a starfighter from an old cartoon I saw as I kid than anything else. Maybe someone's been doing some illegal spaceship testing and it didn't go the way they hoped."

"Could be. I'm going to land in stealth mode, just to be safe. And then we'll approach the barn quietly and assess the situation before we engage with our astronaut wannabees."

The younger officer raised a brow at what he considered to be an excess of caution, but just shrugged. "You're the boss."

At the warning from Artoo, Cody and Rex were instantly on alert. They slipped their armorweave gloves back on and jammed their helmets on their heads, switching to their HUDs, which gave them infrared vision, allowing them to essentially see through walls.

"Hostiles confirmed," Cody said via their helmet comms, seeing two human shaped reddish blobs sidling along the front of the building on either side of the big doorway as they quietly sprinted that way with Artoo following on Rex's heels. He heard Tezza say something behind him, but not knowing her language, he ignored her and followed his natural instinct to protect against people acting in a suspicious fashion.

Tezza watched in alarm with what had to be a stunned fish look as the men turned into real looking soldiers in front of her eyes. With efficient movements they jog-stalked down the hallway towards the door, palming guns she had just assumed were toys, being way more intrigued with their faces than the paraphernalia on their belts. Their booted feet were soundless where before they had made normal footfall sounds.

She was understandably stunned.

She tossed down the rubber curry in the general direction of the brush box and dashed after Cody. "What are you doing?" she hissed, as soon as she caught up about three quarters of the way to the front door.

Cody waved an authoritative hand at her that even as a civilian she recognized as a 'stay put' signal.

Not one to be so easily dissuaded, Tezza ignored the command, staying right behind him as he ran. At least, until Cody whirled around and grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into an empty stall and very clearly indicated she should stay put or else. She thought that was a rather good trick, considering his face was covered by a helmet and he didn't say a word.

Biting her lip with worry that the cosplayer / soldiers had lost it and were about to attack the horses or something, she peeked around the door of the stall and watched the armour clad men move in sync to the doorway and then in tandem leap forward and each turn in different directions with their guns raised.

As blue beams emerged from the muzzles of the unfamiliar looking guns, Tezza heard someone call out, "Stop, Police!" That was immediately followed by the sound of gunshots and falling bodies as apparently the police shot at the same time that they spoke and then immediately succumbed to the blue beams.

Heart somewhere up near her tonsils, Tezza tried to gulp it back down as she ran down the hallway towards the door filled with doom. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she yelled at the men who had seemed so harmless not even a minute ago, once again ignoring the fact that they didn't understand English. They turned to look at her, their emotionless visors giving her no indication of their thoughts.

Tezza skidded through the doorway and looked both ways to see two blue uniformed policemen lying on the ground. She gasped in dismay and alarm. "You can't just shoot whoever comes along!" she yelled at Cody, waving her hands helplessly. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're going to be in? I hope you didn't kill them. Please tell me you didn't kill them?"

Cody blinked at the outraged woman. "I'm getting the impression she's not pleased with our protection," Cody said via helmet comm to Rex.

"Ya think?" he scoffed back.

"Absolutely not!" Anakin shouted loud enough to catch the attention of every person in the very large and very crowded hangar.

Master and Padawan ignored the curious looks as Ahsoka growled, the tips of her sharp canine teeth making a rare appearance, and took a step forward into his personal space, looking up into Anakin's glowering visage. "I wasn't asking you, Master. I was telling you. I'm going into that wormhole and I'm bringing Rex back!"

"Over my dead body! It's way too dangerous! I know you and Rex are very good friends, and he's my friend too, practically family, but I'm not going to let you go on a suicide mission for him!"

"You can't stop me!"

"Like hell I can't! You take one step towards a ship and I'm going to knock you out and tie you up!"

Obi-Wan, Fives, Padmè, Typho, Dormè, and Threepio's heads swivelled back and forth as they watched the familiar sight of the two stubborn minded Jedi clash over another opinion. It wasn't even close to the first time that one had tried to talk the other out of doing something exceptionally stupid.

"Ten credits says they both go," Fives whispered to General Kenobi.

"And ten says neither go," Obi-Wan whispered back.

"You're on."

Neither even bothered to think that Ahsoka would actually manage to leave on her own. Aside from the fact that now literally everyone knew what she wanted to do and would all be compelled to stop her, Anakin really would go through with his threat if he thought it necessary.

The two young Jedi glared at each other for a solid minute, both trying to outstubborn the other, until Ahsoka broke and tears welled in her big baby blue eyes. Her lips trembled as she held back a sob. But... Rex...

Sensing that she wasn't faking the sorrow, Anakin immediately pulled her stiff body into a tight hug, curling around her much smaller form protectively, his cheek resting against the striped skin of her montral. "I'm sorry, Snips," he murmured softly. "I'll miss him too. But I can't let you die for him. He wouldn't want you to, and you know that."

Ahsoka buried her face in the shoulder of his black leather tabard, hands clenching in the thick, synthetic material as she made a valiant effort at not breaking down into a bawling mass of uselessness. "You're right. I do know that," she whispered and then sniffed back more tears. "But I believe with my entire being that I wouldn't be dying. I believe that I'm supposed to go get him and Cody. I can't not try." She sniffed again and said through their bond, so that only Anakin could possibly hear her, "He's my mate, Anakin."

The young man, who was as close to an older brother to her as he could get without actually being of the same blood, stiffened, his breath catching. He pulled back just far enough so that he could see her eyes. Ahsoka looked up and their gazes locked. "Ahsoka…"

" He doesn't know. And I haven't acted on it yet, I promise. But I know that you, of all people, would understand how much I have to do this. If it were Padmè on the other side of the wormhole, I know you would go get her without even thinking about it."

Anakin sighed, and closed his eyes momentarily as he fought with his Jedi side and the part of him that would do anything for his soulmate, his true love, his everything. The side that lived and breathed for Padmè won quickly. "Ahsoka… You said yet. What did you mean by that?"

A hint of a smile formed on the corner of her mouth and her cheeks heated. "I mean that I'm tired of denying my nature. Everything in me screams for me to claim Rex as my own. I know Humans don't have quite the same urges as a Togrutan, but surely you must have succumbed to something similar to defy the Code the way you do?"

His own mouth twitched up into a reluctant smile. "You could say that. How long have you known about Padmè and I, anyway?"

Her smile grew. "Since the first time I saw you two together. You throw off a lot of possessive pheromones whenever you're in her presence that any Togrutan would be able to sense without even trying. And I can literally hear her heartbeat speed up whenever she's with you or talks about you. It's very cute."

Now Anakin was gawking at his Padawan, having just learnt something new about her that he'd never even thought to ask about. He did know that she had phenomenal hearing, due to the echoing abilities of her montrals, but it had never occurred to him that she could actually hear heartbeats, or sense pheromones, for that matter. But if Ahsoka can do that, then so can Master Ti! "Ummmm, Snips, I have to ask, would Master Ti also be able to sense all of that?"

Ahsoka sent him a mental snort, now full on grinning. "Of course. And so can many other members of the Council, like Masters Fisto and Tiin. But even the ones that aren't quite as skilled at reading body signals can feel the way the Force dances between you two. And barring that, you only need eyes to see that you love each other, as a few legions worth of clones can attest. Practically everyone we know knows that you and Padmè are together. They've simply chosen not to call you on it because of who you are."

Anakin blinked a couple of times, about as close to floored as he could get without actually falling on it. "Well, kark."

Ahsoka patted the cheek of his shocked looking face a couple times. "Yep. But you can tell me what you decide to do about that later. First, I'm going to get my mate back from wherever he ended up."

Obi-Wan watched his charges have a ten second mental discussion, able to sense that they were talking to each other, but he hadn't been invited into the loop of their bond this time, so he could only guess as to what was being said by their feelings and their facial expressions. "Kriff," he muttered as he sensed the tide changing. He dug into a pouch on his belt and handed Fives a small fistful of gold credit bars.

Fives raised a brow in question just as Ahsoka pulled away from Anakin and started heading for one of the shuttles parked along the wall.

Anakin startled from his shock and called, "Not without me, you're not! I refuse to let you do this alone!"

Ahsoka paused and turned around, beaming a wide smile at her Master. "If you insist."

"I do, and I'm bloody well flying," he said as he quickly caught up to her.

"Of course you are."

Padmè stared after her retreating husband with wide eyes and then looked over at Obi-Wan. "What just happened?"

The Jedi Master shrugged and shook his head in resignation. "They're off to do something incredibly reckless again, of course. What else?"

A very determined look crossed the senator's beautiful face. "Not without me, they're not. If Anakin is going to get himself stuck somewhere else, then he's kriffing well taking me with him this time. I'm tired of sitting at home, wondering if he'll ever come back to me."

While the small group of people within hearing distance of that gawked at her for more or less admitting to their illicit relationship, Padmè dashed after her husband. "Anakin!"

He turned around when he was only two steps away from the ramp of a shuttle. He was already wincing, knowing that 'I am not pleased with you' tone. "Yes, Senator Amidala?"

Ahsoka snickered under her breath.

Anakin elbowed her in the side to shut his snippy Padawan up.

Padmè closed the distance between them with quick and determined strides, her purple dress swirling around her ankles. "Don't Senator Amidala me, Anakin Skywalker. You were just going to leave without saying goodbye to anyone?" The 'like me' was left unsaid, but it hung on the air anyway.

"Ummmm." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Yes?"

Padmè huffed in exasperation, planting her hands on her hips. "We'll be talking about that later, you can bet on that. But time is probably short, so we'll skip all that for now." She pointed at her sleekly gleaming arrow shaped ship. "If you're going back into that wormhole, you're taking the Sky Angel or nothing, do you hear me?"

Anakin raised a brow at the fourth identical ship to hold that title. It was admittedly the best ship for the mission, being very well built and having literally the best shields money could buy. (But was still somehow not Jar Jar proof.) "If you insist."

"I do."

He walked up to his wife and looked down at her, letting his eyes show her how much he loved her. "Thank you," he said softly. "I promise to do my best not to wreck this one." And come back to you.

She laughed softly. "Don't make any promises you can't keep."

"Hey!"

Padmè flicked her eyes at her ship. "Aren't you wasting precious time?"

Anakin exhaled loudly, wishing that for once in his life, he could say a proper goodbye to his wife in public, but even if everyone did know, or at least suspect that they were together, he still wasn't about to flaunt it to the galaxy until Padmè said they could or the war ended so he could ditch the Order with a clear conscience, whichever came first. "Fine. But I'm bringing myself and Ahsoka and Rex and Cody and the Sky Angel back in one piece, got that?"

Padmè just smiled. "Got it. But since I'm coming along with you, you don't have to worry so much about bringing the ship back to me."

His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You're WHAT?"

"Coming with you," Padmè said blithely, already turning and walking towards her ship with swift strides that sent her skirt flaring behind her again. She wasn't surprised when Ahsoka appeared beside her and shot her a wide grin of approval.

Anakin stood frozen, watching his wife and Padawan walk away from him for all of two seconds before he unfroze himself and almost literally leaped after them. "Like hell you are!"

Padmè shot him a chiding look as he appeared on her other side, walking backwards so that he could glare at her. She didn't stop her forward momentum. "Don't you dare take that tone with me. I am not staying behind if it means there's a possibility that I'll never see you again. I know just as well as the next person how unpredictable wormholes can be. If it closes before you can come back through it, then I'm going to be on the other side of it with you, and that's final."

Anakin opened his mouth, snapped it shut, and then repeated the process twice more before he gave up on trying to come up with a good counterargument to that. "All right," he admitted just as the heel of his right boot touched the bottom of the ramp of the Sky Angel.

Padmè gave him one of her beautiful smiles that he never failed to turn into a puddle of goo over and walked past him and up the ramp, with Ahsoka at her side. The girl gave him an equally beautiful smile that just made Anakin want to roll his eyes.

Force, I'm a sucker to the females in my life, he thought as his shoulders slumped slightly while he watched the girls walk up the ramp triumphantly.

And then he nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand clapped him on the shoulder. "Usually I envy the hell out of you, Sir. But today... not so much."

Anakin looked over at the one who'd touched him, seeing the commiserating smile and the twinkling brown eyes. He hadn't even registered the ARC trooper as being in his vicinity due to his preoccupied state, which freaked him out just a little bit. "I think I agree with you, Fives. I have no idea what I've gotten myself into sometimes, and right now is one of those times."

The clone laughed once and then sobered. "On behalf of all of my brothers, I just want to wish you luck. I know it's a dangerous mission, but we all appreciate that you're going after Rex and Cody. I hope the little Commander's fervent belief that they're still alive is right."

Anakin smiled tightly at the clone who'd proved his loyalty to the Republic and his unit countless times, but even more so to Rex, and that meant a lot to the Jedi. "I hope she's right, too. If it's any consolation, I'm not getting a bad feeling about this from the Force, so there's hope still."

Fives nodded. "Thank you, Sir."

He nodded back and then jumped up the ramp in two easy bounds and then closed it behind him. He walked into the cockpit and blinked at the group of people all strapped into chairs and waiting for him. His gaze flicked over Threepio, Dormè, and Typho, not surprised that they'd elected to come along, since they were basically Padmè's family and were incredibly hard to shake, even on a good day, and landed on the Jedi Master dressed in light beige and sporting a head full of copper hair. "What are you doing, Obi-Wan?"

The older Jedi raised a single brow and smirked. "Coming with you, as you can plainly see. The lovely senator isn't the only one with a claim on you, you know."

Anakin only sighed yet again and took his seat in the pilot's chair and started flicking switches. "Fine. But if the whole lot of us don't make it back to Coruscant in the next decade or so, then you're the one who's going to explain to the Council why they were left to flounder through the rest of the war on their own. And you have to promise to record whatever epic scolding the Duchess is going to give you when you reappear in her life after an extended leave of absence for a second time."

"Agreed."

All of the females snickered.

Tezza growled at the silent men who just stared at her via their helmets, presenting a united front as they stood side by side. Then she spun on the ball of her foot and went to check on the policeman to the right of the door. She knelt beside him and breathed a sigh of relief to see his chest rising and falling steadily and no visible wounds. She had no idea what the blue beams did, but maybe it was kind of like a stun from a phaser like on those old Star Trek shows. Star Wars had a stun option, too, I think. She hadn't known that anyone had actually invented that tech yet, but it didn't really surprise her, considering how many other inventions had been inspired by old movies and shows.

Tezza checked the other officer and was relieved to find him also just unconscious and not dead. Despite this, righteous anger filled her, possibly making her a little reckless, but she stomped back to Cody anyway as if he was still the harmless man she'd first assumed him to be. Then she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him for a good half minute as she worked out how to explain that he had done something bad.

Cody knew they'd messed up already, but her next actions and words really confirmed it. The tiny woman poked at the blaster still in his hand and basically yelled, "No!" at him. "No guns! No shoot human. No shoot horse. No shoot cat. Just NO! Got it?" He only understood half of the words she said, but he could fill in the blanks based on context and added them to his slowly growing list of her words.

Rex started cracking up over the comm, laughing with annoying chuckles, stunted inhales, and snorts. (All while his body was perfectly still, having mastered the art during a few hundred too many briefings with the Jedi Generals.) Cody shot him a helmeted glare that his brother was perfectly happy to ignore, his chuckles not waning at all, so Cody chose to ignore him and focused on the girl again.

Seeing the betrayed look on Tezza's face, the Commander of thousands of his own clone brothers holstered his blaster and reached up to pull his helmet off, which had the added benefit of turning off Rex's annoying laughter. He was prepared to apologize as best as he could to the irate woman. Apparently they shouldn't have shot the men who wore matching uniforms and were probably some sort of police force, now that he had more than half a second to look at them. But he hadn't known that in the heat of the moment, and they had been sneaking in a very suspicious fashion. He supposed it was logical for some sort of authority to investigate their crash, but he hadn't expected such a fast response time and really hadn't been thinking that far ahead anyway, considering the chest high distraction currently tapping her booted foot at him like a pissed off mother scolding a naughty child.

Honestly, he found her just as amusing as Rex did, but he'd never admit it. In fact, he found her so magnificent in her fury that he wanted to kiss the rage right out of her until it transformed into a much more pleasant form of passion.

"I'm sorry," he said, conveying his regret as best as he could with his expression.

Tezza sighed, because even though she didn't know the words, the tone was enough. Her hands dropped to her sides and she shook her head at him in a mild form of exasperation. "You're sorry."

Cody nodded quickly, adding more words to his vocabulary based on context. "Yes. Sorry. Cody Sorry."

Tezza blinked in surprise at the English words. Whoa. Someone's even smarter than he looks. And then he patted his chestplate, his helmet, and his gun and said something else starting with his name. She had a feeling she knew what he was getting at even if she wasn't sure she liked it. He and his twin had reacted too well to the officers showing up. They were too in sync, too smooth, too practiced, to not be exactly what they looked like in real life, even if their Star Wars costumes almost probably weren't what they normally wore. "Cody soldier," she supplied, touching his armoured chest and then his gun and helmet the same way he had.

Cody beamed, so relieved that she got the idea. "Yes, Cody soldier. Rex soldier." He gently pulled her behind him and mimed shooting the officer again with just his hand, then he turned around, hoping that she understood this as well. "I am a soldier. It is my job to protect you. Do you see?"

Tezza nodded, only understanding one of the words he'd said, but his actions spoke louder than words. "Cody soldier. Cody protect Tezza. That's all you were doing wasn't it?"

He smiled, creating adorable dimples in his cheeks that made her want to swoon like a woman from hundreds of years ago.

"Yes. Cody protect Tezza," he said firmly, his free hand reaching up all by itself and brushing a long lock of dark gold hair behind her ear that had fallen over her eye at some point. His gloved fingers lingered on her cheek in a gentle caress. Cody wishes he could always protect Tezza.

If only she was actually mine to protect forever.

But she can't be. I'm going home. Somehow. And I doubt she'd want to leave her life here and come with me.

He forced his hand to return to his side.